Through the Ages
by Airbender-chan
Summary: [AU Kuro POV] Capturing all the precious moments life has to offer, from childhood innocence to the anguish of loosing someone close to you. Reassurance can appear in more way than one, from silent thankyous to crumpled drawings. Sometimes even more.
1. Preschool 1

SO. This shall be a fanfic unlike any other before! I plan to take you from Kurogane's and Fai's AU preschool days, to their graduation from high school! The way I see it, each grade, or school, I haven't quite decided yet, is going to have two, maybe more, I haven't decided yet, chapters to it. This chapter is kind of fluffy and angsty at the same. Yay for angsty preschoolers! Actually, it's kind of sad...-sniffle- Writing angsty preschoolers is very difficult. ;; Anyway, I hope that you like the first chapter!

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I walked into the foreign building, clinging to my mother's dress as she led me along. She had said that coming to this place called a "preschool" would be fun experience for me, and that I would make a lot of friends. I didn't want to make friends. I wanted to stay at home with my mother and my father, and play with my action figures. When I told her that, my mother said that there was a lot more to life than GI-Joes.

I looked around the building and the hugeness of the place finally hit me. I didn't like it. There were things in rooms that I didn't know, couldn't see, and that bothered me. After walking up a set of stairs we arrived to a brightly colored door. On the door were drawings done in crayon, awkward looking blobs that made no sense to me, but probably meant a lot to their owners. There was one picture that caught my eye. It was clearly a kitten sitting on the grass, basking in sunlight. I wanted to admire the picture some more but my mother had knocked on the door and it opened almost immediately, revealing a room full of the chatter of other children. I tensed up and hid behind my mother's legs. Well, not entirely. I was brave, so I peeked out just a little to see what was going on.

A woman about as tall as my mother opened the door and began talking to my mother. I didn't really listen to them, I was trying to see around the woman to get a view of what was going on inside. There were a lot of people inside; that much I could tell. That much I didn't like. Soon enough the woman crouched down to my level, and I finally got a good look at her. She had long black hair, and a stern face that had a hidden gentility behind it.

"Good morning." She said, with a bit of a smile on her face, "You can call me Arashi." She said, pointing to herself. I stared at her blankly for a moment before she spoke again, "Do you have a name?"

I pulled myself closer to my mother and nodded.

"Do I get to know what it is?" She asked.

"Kurogane." I mumbled, not really knowing what to make of this woman.

"Well then, Kurogane-chan. How about you come inside with me? We're just finishing up watching a puppet show, and after that we were going to play with the toys in the room. Does that sound fun?" She asked as she stood back up to her full height.

I nodded a little and glanced up at my mother. She pulled me away from her leg and then bent down to talk to me as well.

"Your father will pick you up in a few hours. I'm sure that you'll have a lot of fun today, Kurogane-chan." My mother kissed my forehead and ruffled my hair before leaving the same way that we had come.

Before I knew it Arashi had ushered me inside and the door was quickly shut. When she shut the door I realized that my mother had left me here. She had brought me here, and she had left me here, and she wasn't coming back. I was going to be here all by myself forever. I clenched my little fists at my side and charged back at the door, frantically trying to reach the handle.

"Mom! Mother!" I shouted. When I found that I couldn't reach the handle I settled for banging on the door and continuing to call for my mom. The laughing and chatter from the other people in the room had stopped, but I didn't care. I didn't belong here. This wasn't my house, I didn't know this place, and I couldn't believe that my mother would just abandon me here.

It was then that I felt two strong hands lift me into the air and hold me up. I blinked a little and looked at the man who had picked me up. He had a very kind looking face, and was wearing a smile despite my angriness and struggle to break free. He lifted a puppet to my face and the puppet-man bit my nose. My eyes widened and I frowned at the puppet who said, "Don't worry, kiddo! You're going to have a lot of fun with us today!"

I stared at disbelief at the puppet and then at the man, who was still smiling at me, "I'm Sorata." The happy-man said with a laugh, "And, this is my mini-me." He added, waving the puppet about in the air, causing the other children in the room to laugh.

I had calmed down a little at that time, having my nose bitten off by a puppet kind of nullified my anger. Sorata put me down and then turned toward the group, "Everyone, this is Kurogane-chan." Sorata motioned to me and then continued, "He'll be joining our class, so be sure to make good friends with him."

The other kids all looked at me as if they were looking at something totally new and strange to them, and I guess I kind of was. Sorata then announced that they were going to have "free play time" now and that all the toys in the room were open to play with. The children scattered, but I remained in place.

I glanced around the room, still in a bit of shock that my mother had abandoned me, and when I turned around I found a short kid with blond hair staring up at me. Well, he wasn't too short; he was just shorter than me. His hair was really long, to at least his shoulders, but he was clearly a boy. The boy smiled at me and said, "Y'know what?" When I didn't respond he asked again. "Y'know what?" I just continued to look at him with confusion and so he continued, "My daddy drops me off everyday with Sorata and Arashi. And, Y'know what else?"

"What...?" I ventured, knowing that the boy was going to continue anyway.

"He always comes and picks me up when the clock looks like this." The boy clapped his palms together and raised his arms above his head, "All the mommy's and daddy's come when the clock looks like this. So, your mommy or your daddy will come and get you then too!" The boy finally lowered his arms and looked at me expectantly.

"My mother said that my father will come and get me today..."

"Well then your daddy will be here then!" The boy smiled a bit and looked around the room before looking back at me, "So, your name is Kuro-chan, right?"

"Kurogane." I said, looking strangely at the boy.

"I don't like the last part." The boy said bluntly, "So, I'm just gonna call you Kuro-chan, alright?" Without waiting for a response from me he continued, "I'm Fay." He thrust his thumb into his chest proudly, "All of my names are a lot longer than that, so I just use the first one, which is Fay. The other two are a D and a Flourite. But, I can't spell none of those, well, I can spell the D, but not the Flourite, so I just use the Fay." Fay explained in a very confusing way.

I stayed silent and wondered why this Fay was talking to me so much, and why he wasn't off playing with the other kids. He was friendly enough to have known all of them, and yet he was talking to me.

"Do you wanna come and play blocks with me?" Fay asked suddenly.

"No. I don't like blocks."

"Yes you do."

"No I don't."

"Well, I do, so you have to like them too, ok?" And with that I found myself being pulled over to the blocks.

I stood there and watched as Fay began to build something so tall that he was eventually on the tips of his toes, putting blocks one on top of the other. "Kuro-chan. You're taller than me. Can you put this last one on?"

"No."

"But you have to! Please? I can't reach, and if I try it's all gonna fall down..." Fay pouted and looked at me with his hands outstretched, a wooden block in his hand.

I snatched the block and put it on the top easily. "There."

Fay grinned and sat down on the floor and pulled the bottom block out from underneath the tower, and it came crashing to the ground creating a clamor that caused the other children to stop for a moment and look before going back to what they were doing. Fay laughed a bit and looked at me, "We should build another one. That was the loudest noise I've made ever! And, it was all because of you, Kuro-chan!" Fay smiled an impossibly big smile at me and I just kind of stared back down at him.

"If you were just going to knock it over, then why'd you build it in the first place?" I asked him as I sat down on the floor opposite the boy.

"Because you can't make the crash noise without the tower." Fay pointed out. I blinked a little bit at him before I picked up a block and set it in the upright position.

"I guess blocks are a little fun..." I muttered, and the two of us began to build a tower.

---

Soon enough the clock on the wall of the room looked like Fay's hands had earlier and Sorata and Arashi announced that the parents would be arriving soon. Everyone in the room ran to hooks on the walls and pulled off coats and backpacks from them and lined up at the door. Sorata and his puppet lead us out of the room and down the stairs toward the front door. I stood next to Fay in the line as we walked, and he chattered to me about how much fun we were going to have tomorrow, and how we could build bigger towers out of blocks. I half listened to him, but I really wanted to just see my father. When we were outside everyone was dismissed to their parents except for me and Fay.

"Sometimes my daddy is late because of his job. But, he always comes." Fay said with a smile, "And, your daddy will be here soon too." Fay looked at me with a reassuring nod.

Suddenly a phone in the area rang and I glanced around and saw Arashi produce a phone from her pocket. She held it up to her ear and nodded for a moment or two, and she said a few hushed words that I couldn't hear. She then passed the phone off to Sorata. A look of sadness crossed his face, "There are no relatives...I see...We'll take care of everything...Thank you..." Sorata hung up the phone and he and Arashi talked for a minute or two before Sorata walked over to me. He lifted me up and held me tight before speaking.

"Kurogane-chan, your father isn't coming to pick you up today..." He said.

"Is my mother coming...?"

"No. Kurogane-chan, sometimes accidents happen, and people get hurt, really bad. And they leave this world, and get to go somewhere better. Unfortunately that means that they sometimes have to leave people they love behind."

"My mother said that when that happens people go to heaven." I said, not really getting why Sorata was telling me this.

"Right. Well, heaven must be a very beautiful place, right?" He asked quietly.

"My mother said that it would have a lot of sun, and a lot of flowers, and that when people have to go there they are happy." I said again.

"That sounds like a nice place." Sorata paused, "Kurogane-chan, your mother and your father have gone to heaven."

"They have...? When are they going to come back to get me...?" I asked.

"Kurogane-chan...They can't come back. They've left here, and have gone somewhere better."

"But, what about me?" I asked, still not quite comprehending what Sorata was trying to tell me. "Aren't they going to come back and get me...?" I pushed myself away from Sorata, who still held me, and he set me on the ground and I turned to look at Fay, "You're a liar!" I pointed my finger at him, "You told me that my father would come and get me! But...but..." I stopped, what exactly had happened to them...?

They had died. They weren't ever going to come back to get me. They had to go to heaven now, and they had to leave me behind. What was death really? They couldn't come back and get me because of it. They had left me behind because of it. Death was a horrible, evil thing, and I decided then that I hated death, and that death made me angry.

I looked back at Fay, "But, they're not coming back! Ever!" I shouted as loud as I could. I stood there and cried, and wished that death didn't happen, that it didn't exist, and that my father and my mother would show up, and take me home.

It was at that time that a beat up blue car pulled up and the man inside called for Fay. Fay didn't go. He stood there and watched me cry, tears in his own eyes, probably because I yelled at him. But, I didn't care. Liars deserved to get yelled at. He gave a bit of a smile and said, "Maybe your mommy and daddy will get to meet my mommy." Fay said, "My mommy went to heaven when I was a baby. Daddy told me that she's probably really happ-" I shoved him and he fell back onto the pavement. Fay stared up at me and let his tears fall from his eyes before he stood up and ran to his car. He opened the side door and climbed in, pulling it shut with both hands behind him, and the car drove off.

Sorata picked me up again, and I didn't bother to struggle away this time. He just held me close to him and let me cry. Arashi looked from me, to the direction that Fay's car had gone, and she shook her head a little before turning back to Sorata and me. "Let's go back inside." She said.

Without another word the three of us headed back into the building, back up the stairs, and back to the room. From there we walked through a side door, which I had previously thought to be a closet, into a whole apartment. Sorata sat down with me on the couch and I cried into the adult's shoulder.

Through my choked sobs I heard a baby crying from somewhere deep in the apartment. Arashi scurried off and returned with a young child. She had short black hair and was very small. Arashi smiled a bit and cradled the child in her arms. When she noticed that I was watching her she walked over and introduced me to the child.

"Kurogane-chan, this is Tomoyo." She said, "Would you like to hold her for a bit?" When I nodded she said, "Can you stop crying for me?" I nodded my head and wiped away my tears. I was still sad, but I knew that the baby had been crying because I had been loud, and I didn't want her to be upset.

Arashi smiled a bit and I climbed off of Sorata's lap and sat down on the couch. Once I was settled Arashi handed me the child. "Be gentle." Arashi said. I looked down at the girl in my arms, and something about her made me a little happier inside, even if I was still very sad.

"She's little." I said in a quiet voice.

"Tomoyo is only a few months old." Sorata said with a sagely nod. Arashi left the room and headed for the kitchen, and soon enough the quieted clanging of pots and pans could be heard. "I think that she likes you." Sorata said, noticing that the baby had fallen asleep in my arms. I watched the child for a moment before asking something.

"If you and Arashi are in the preschool, who is here with Tomoyo?"

"That would be Souma-chan. She's probably taking a shower now. She goes to school at night, and watches Tomoyo for us during the day." Sorata explained.

"Oh." I said. I found it a little weird that this Souma person went to school at night, but I had a lot of other things on my mind.

"Kurogane-chan. Would you like to spend more time with Tomoyo-chan?" Sorata asked, the tone of his voice had gone back to the same tone he had used when we were outside. I nodded. "How about you stay with us for a while?" Sorata asked.

"What about my house?" I asked, before I remembered that there would be nobody there except for me. I took a shaky breath to stop myself from crying, for Tomoyo's sake, and I looked back down at her.

"What if we get all of your stuff from your house, and then you come and stay here with Arashi, Tomoyo and I?" Sorata asked, "It would be fun, right?"

I didn't say anything for a minute or two, and when I did I said, "I'm gonna miss living in my house with my mother and my father though..."

"Yeah." Sorata said, "Well, you kn-"

"I guess that I'll stay here..." I said slowly. I didn't really know what else I was supposed to do, "But...I'm still going to miss them..."

"Nobody said that you couldn't Kurogane-chan."

I looked up at Sorata and then down at Tomoyo and a few silent tears fell down my face.


	2. Preschool 2

The days following my moving in with Sorata and Arashi went by in a blur. Sorata and Arashi called a lot of people, making plans for something that they told me was a funeral. They said that giving my mother and father a funeral, and burying them in the ground together would make sure that they would get to heaven, and that they would be happy there. I said that I wanted them to be happy, even if I wasn't with them.

The funeral took place on the Saturday after my parents went to heaven. There were a lot of people there that I didn't know. Arashi said that they were all friends of my parents, and that they were all there to wish my parents a safe journey and a happy afterlife. A lot of my parents' friends came up to me and would say something like, "Kurogane-chan, I'm very sorry about your loss," or "You're being very brave about this whole thing, Kurogane-chan."

We stayed at the graveyard after everyone else had left. I was still kind of confused about things, but Sorata and Arashi told me repeatedly that my parents were happy.

"Do they miss me?" I asked while I admired the stone that marked my parents' grave. There were flowers, and letters that I assumed spelled out my parents' names, carved into it, and it was shiny and smooth to touch.

"Yes." Arashi responded. Somewhere inside of my I was glad that they missed me, and glad that even though they were in someplace better, they still loved me.

The weekend passed quickly and slowly at the same time. The four of us, Tomoyo came too, went to my house to get things like my bed and other stuff that I had, and bring it to Sorata and Arashi's apartment. I pushed Tomoyo in her carriage and showed her all the important things in my house, like my bedroom and the swing-set in my backyard. I think she liked that.

On Monday I woke up early because I heard Arashi in the kitchen. I wandered out of my new room and watched her for a few minutes. She was making breakfast like my mother used to do at my house.

"Good morning, Kurogane-chan. You're up early today." Arashi commented, "Would you like some breakfast?"

I nodded and Arashi set a plate on the kitchen table for me. I climbed up onto the chair and picked up my fork to eat, but I found that I wasn't that hungry, so I just kind of poked my food.

"Not too hungry this morning?" I jumped when Sorata spoke from somewhere behind me. I didn't quite know how he got there, but I nodded as an answer to his question anyway. The man walked to the other side of the table and sat down.

"Arashi and I were thinking that if you didn't want to come back to school today that you could stay here and play with Souma-chan and Tomoyo today." Sorata said as Arashi put a plate in front of him.

"Is Souma-san your daughter too?" I asked.

"No." Arashi answered as she sat down at the table herself, "She needed a job, and we needed someone to watch Tomoyo while we were in the other room."

Just then there was a knock at the door, "I'm coming in!" Someone called from the opposite side of the door. When it clicked open it revealed a girl older than me, but younger than Sorata and Arashi, with short, choppy, black hair.

"Ah, speak of the devil!" Sorata said with a chuckle, "Good morning, Souma-chan."

"Good morning." Souma replied as she took off her shoes and entered the apartment.

"Have you eaten breakfast yet?" Arashi asked.

Souma held up a brown bag, "I bought something on the way, thanks though."

"Are you sure that you don't want some of my honey's delicious breakfast?" Sorata asked with a look on his face that had to be hard for Souma to turn down.

"No thanks." Souma said with a laugh, "You guys already do enough for me."

I had been watching Souma since she had walked in, trying to decide if I liked her or not, when she noticed that I was there staring at her.

"And, who is this?" She asked in that typical high-pitched voice that a lot of adults use on kids.

"This is Kurogane-chan." Sorata introduced, "He'll be living with us from now on, so be nice to him, Souma-chan."

"Of course!" She said, a little too cheerfully.

"He's had a rough weekend and was thinking about staying with you and Tomoyo today instead of coming to the preschool." Arashi added as she collected her and Sorata's empty plates and put them in the sink. Mine was still full.

"Well, how about it Kurogane-chan?" Souma asked, her voice slipping into that false voice again, "Do you want to hang out with me today?"

I thought about this for a moment. I could either go to the preschool and listen to the other kids talk about their parents, and their fun weekends, or I could stay where I was and teach Souma how to talk like a regular person. I wasn't sure which one I wanted to do, and then I thought about the kid that had talked to me the other day, Fay. I was still angry at him for lying, though I guess I knew that nothing was really his fault, and I felt kind of bad for pushing him too. I didn't want to have to see him today.

"I'll stay here. Maybe I'll go to school again tomorrow." I decided.

"Good choice. We're going to have a lot of fun today, Kurogane-chan!"

Sorata and Arashi smiled and rose from the table and made for the door that led to the preschool room, "Alright, we'll see you in a few hours." Sorata said. And, with that they were gone.

I looked at Souma for a moment, and she looked at me before asking if I wanted to watch the TV.

"Won't the noise wake up Tomoyo?"

"I don't think it--" Souma was cut off by a cry coming from further inside the apartment.

"See? Now she's already up." Souma laughed, patted my head, and walked down the hallway. After a few minutes she returned with Tomoyo hushed in her arms. I was rubbing my head where Souma had touched in annoyance as if she had contaminated my hair. I watched Souma cradle Tomoyo and coo to her in her baby voice as she turned the TV on to a children's station, "Does this work for you, Kurogane-chan?"

I shrugged my shoulders and sat down on the couch; Souma sat beside me. After a few moments of silence, excluding the noise from the television, I asked, "Why do you talk like that?"

"Like what?"

"When you make your voice different to talk to me or Tomoyo." I said, frowning at Souma.

"Eh? Oh, that..." Souma frowned as well, as if my question had stumped her.

"It's weird." I stated bluntly.

Souma looked offended before she muttered something that sounded like, "You're weird."

I glared at her before sticking out my tongue; she stuck hers out back.

It was then that I decided that I liked Souma. But, I wasn't going to let her know that.

---

By the end of the day I had successfully called Souma eight different names, including stinkyface and poophead, and she had shot back with names of her own. The real thing that brought us together though was Tomoyo. We both shared a kind of need to watch out for and take care of the younger girl before ourselves.

Sorata and Arashi returned that afternoon and caught the two of us making faces at each other.

"Well, I'm glad that the two of you are getting along well." Sorata said with a grin.

"We're not getting along. I don't like Souma." I said as I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Well, I don't like you either." Souma said, making a face that I returned immediately.

Sorata laughed, "Of course not." He said, "Souma-chan, you're free to go if you like."

"Alright," She said, "Tomoyo is taking her nap right now. She'll probably wake up in an hour or so." And with that she made her way to the door, making a face at me and leaving before I had the chance to retaliate. I blew a raspberry at the door anyway.

I heard Arashi and Sorata chuckle from behind me, but I didn't really care.

"Oh, yes." Arashi said suddenly. The crinkling of paper was heard and I turned around to see what she was doing. She pulled out a piece of paper that was folded small enough to fit into her pocket, and she handed it to me. "Fay-chan wanted me to give you this, and he says that he is sorry for lying to you."

I took the paper and thought for a moment about what Arashi had just said. I should have been the one apologizing to him...

Setting that thought aside I opened up the paper and studied the picture on the inside. It looked similar to the drawing of the cat that I had seen the other day, only there was a little, black puppy sitting with the yellow colored kitten. Underneath the two animals Fay had written out his name and my name. Well, the first part of my name anyway.

The tiniest smile crossed my face and I stormed off to my room, pretending that I didn't like the picture, even though Arashi and Sorata probably saw right through it. I put the picture under my pillow and told myself that later I would find some tape and hang it on the wall. It stayed under my pillow for a long time. I liked it better there.

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There will be one more chapter in preschool, and then I'll move on to elementary school. (hopefully) Yay!

Um, some notes-I tried hard to describe that noise that people make when talking to children. You know that like way your voice gets higher and you make everything sound cute? That's the way Souma was talking.

Also about Souma, I kind of picture the two of them to be in like a I-secretly-don't-mind-you-but-am-going-to-call-you-names-anyway type of relationship, so that's what I did here.

Tomoyo sleeps a lot, yay babies. She'll have a bigger role later on.

Oh! For those of you who don't know...a raspberry is that noise your tongue makes when you stick it out and blow and you make the pthtpthbth noise...

Also-Just in case some of you think the things that Kurogane says are not things that a preschooler would say, you are mistaken. Granted his thoughts are a little more higher level...(I'm trying to make them understandable and neat, while still keeping the scatter brained ness of how I think a preschooler would think) But, I work with preschoolers a lot, and yes, I have heard similar things to what they say. Haha. Ok, that's it. Thanks for reading, and the reviews! (8 on the first day, I'm really happy!)


	3. Preschool 3

Notes-

I made Fay FAR too smart, at least in my opinion. Please forgive me. It worked really well when I wrote it, and it reads well, but, I made him way too smart for a five year old...Maybe we'll just say that he's a baby genius or something...

And, the weird smartness is only for one part...I just had to say that first. There will probably be some more weird notes at the end about what to expect from elementary school!

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I did end up going back to school the next day. A few minutes after me, Sorata and Arashi got into the room, Fay appeared through the doorway early, and by himself.

"Good morning!" Fay said cheerfully to the three of us. Sorata and Arashi responded; I did not. I was kind of puzzled as to why Fay was so early. Arashi said that most of the children arrive about 30 minutes after they left the apartment. The clock had barely moved since we walked into the room.

Fay glanced at me for a minute or so as if he were expecting me to say good morning back to him. I didn't and he went to play with a puzzle that had been set out on the table. Sorata and Arashi exchanged glances, but they didn't say anything and continued getting the classroom ready for the other students.

I stood there for a while and watched as Fay steadily worked through three consecutive puzzles in a short period of time. Eventually he noticed me watching and he said, "There's a big puzzle we can do together if you want, Kuro-chan."

When I didn't say anything in response, he rose from the table and walked over to me. He took my hand and pulled me along to a shelf. "There's a lot of puzzles here. If you don't want to do the big one, we can do a little one together." He paused and looked at me, "Pick one that you like."

Ignoring the fact that I was pretending to be mad at Fay and still had to tell him that I was sorry, I pointed to a floor puzzle on the second shelf with a bunch of things like cars and trucks on the box.

"I like that puzzle. It's got lots of big pieces." Fay let go of my hand and stood up on his toes to grab the puzzle. He pulled it down and set it on the floor. After dumping out all of the pieces he sat down on the tile and told me to sit too; I did.

As Fay began to work on the puzzle a few other students began to enter the classroom with their parents, and soon the room was bustling with noise. Since I wasn't doing too good of a job helping with the puzzle, Fay made me hand him pieces that weren't directly in his reach.

"You know what? You don't talk a lot." Fay said, "You didn't talk a lot on your first day at school either."

"I talk." I said defensively. Fay only smiled as if he knew that I was going to say that.

"I know. Just, not a lot." He said as he fit two more pieces together.

"Well, maybe I just don't have a lot to say." I said. I frowned and picked up a puzzle piece from the floor, "This one fits there." I said, pointing.

Fay took the piece and snapped it into place, "That's ok. You don't have to say stuff if you don't want to. Sometimes people will understand anyways." Fay reached for a piece and put it together with another one, "'Cause, you know how babies don't talk? Well, people understand them most of the time."

"I'm not a baby." I mumbled, glaring at him.

"I know." Fay fit another piece in, "I was just giving a zample."

"Example?"

"Yeah, a zample." Fay grinned a bit before talking again, "So, sometimes even if you don't say stuff, people will understand." He took the last piece and snapped it into place, "Neat!" He said. He then began pointing out things in the puzzle and as he did, I kind of began to understand why Fay had taken the time to say what he did. He somehow knew that I wanted to tell him that I was sorry, and he let me know that he forgave me. I stared at Fay as he yammered on about the puzzle, and eventually I said, "You know how you said I don't talk?"

"Yeah?"

"You talk too much." I said. Fay just laughed.

---

Everyday after that and through graduation was basically the same. Fay and I played together most of the time. The only times we didn't was when the girls would ask Fay to play dress up, or house. Somehow I would end up playing too, though I never really wanted to. I just kind of got pulled along wherever Fay went. People didn't really know me as Kurogane; they knew me as Fay's friend. For some reason I was at peace with that.

On the day of graduation we were forced to go in front of everyone else's parents and sing songs for them, and then we would get our diplomas. Sorata sat that those were a piece of paper that stated we were done with preschool. And, that's what I told Fay when he asked me.

"Oh. So that's what a dippyloma is." Fay murmured as he began flicking at the tassel on the top of the hats that we had to wear. They were little blue boxy hats, and I didn't like them much.

"Diploma." I corrected.

"Yeah, that's what I said." Fay said, "Do you 'member the songs we got to sing? 'Cause I do." He said proudly.

"I don't want to sing."

"Ok then, I'll sing loud for the two of us!" Fay smiled brightly. After that, Sorata and Arashi lead the class out in front of the parents, who were filling up chairs in our classroom.

I caught Fay searching the crowd, probably for his father, and then he looked at the floor. His father wasn't there. Fay reached out his hand and it found mine and held it tight. After a couple seconds he looked up and smiled at me. "My dad's prolly at work, so it's ok." He whispered. I nodded a bit, and suddenly the music started playing. Fay stuck to his word and he sang loud enough for two people, all the while he held my hand.

After we got our diplomas all of the other kids left except for Fay. His father had called Arashi to say that he would be there soon to pick up Fay.

"Hey, hey, Kuro-chan! You gots a phone, right?" Fay asked, rocking back and forth on his feet.

"Yeah."

"What's the number? I wanna be able to call you over the vacation."

I raked my memory for the number that Sorata and Arashi made me memorize. Once I figured out what it was I found a piece of paper and a crayon and I wrote it down for Fay and gave it to him.

"I'll call you then!" He smiled.

Arashi glanced out the window, "Fay-chan, your father is here." She said, "I'll bring you outside."

Fay nodded and was about to leave, but he stopped midway as though he thought better of it. He turned around and gave me a quick hug before saying, "I'll call you during the vacation, ok?" He waved and then left the room with Arashi.

I waved after him, "Yeah."

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More notes!

Did you see the spot I was talking about? Yeah...It works well with the chapter, but does not really fit the mentality of a preschooler...;;

The first part of this chapter was being written really well, and I was on a roll, and then the bell ending my free period rang, and when I went back to write more the next day, I was like what the heck...? So, sorry if you can see where I started on the second day. (I'm not telling you where though, you'll have to guess.)

Now for future chapters! (I just hope you all will keep reading!)

We get to see more of Tomoyo!! I'm excited. She'll be in first grade, and Kurogane and Fay will be in fifth...Yeah, I'm kind of skipping over 4 years of elementary school, but, oh well. You don't need every excruciating detail. Haha. No, I think that the only school that will get more than one year, potentially, is High School, but that's still a major if.

Tomoyo and Kurogane will get to interact more, and I think that there will be more of Souma as well. I was disappointed that I couldn't add her and Tomoyo in more in these chapters.

Also, keep an eye on Fay's father. Dundundun. Oh, I guess I should just mention this: No, his father is not Ashura. It's just a random guy. ;

Um...Chii will most likely come into play too. She's going to be in Tomoyo's grade. And, we'll probably get to meet little baby Sakura and Syaoran as well. Hehe. Cuuuuute.

And, that's all that I really know of right now...

So, thanks for reading! 3


	4. Elementary 1

Before notes, cause I say so-

I just wanted to let you know all the stress this chapter caused me. First off, I got on a roll and kept writing and writing thereby disrupting my school grades and what not. (Fear not! I am not failing! Just haven't been paying much attention...) Second, MY BLUE PEN DIED. I ALWAYS write in blue pen. So, half of this is in black pen, and so I kept forgetting stuff and messing up. Also, I got to the point where it was about 13 pages handwritten...but I wasn't finished yet. And I got to the ending point, what you see here, and was like, that is a damn fine ending point, but I am NOT done writing! So, I took the advice of a confused friend and decided to continue what I was doing in this chapter in the next one, because I really, really liked this ending...;; Anyway, enjoy!

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"Tomoyo, could you go and wake up Kurogane?" I heard Arashi ask through the wood of my bedroom door. I was already awake, but I was not ready to start up the boring routine that was school again. It was my fifth and last year at my elementary school, and doing the same stuff for five years got repetitive after a while.

Small knuckles rapped upon my door, "Kurogane, it's time for you to get up." Tomoyo said.

I sighed and replied back to the girl, "Yeah, I'll be up in a minute."

Tomoyo responded with an "Ok" before she made her way back to the kitchen. I reached my hand over to turn on the lamp beside my bed and as my eyes adjusted to the light I thought about the year ahead of me. Tomoyo would be starting at my school this year as a first grader. I guess that was what motivated me to get out of bed. I didn't want to bother Sorata or Arashi and have them walk her to school just because I didn't feel like going to school. They were already busy enough with the preschool next door.

As I rolled off my bed I heard the familiar crinkle of paper from underneath the pillow. I smiled a bit and pulled out the old, faded picture of the cat and the dog. I wondered if Fay was going to be in my class again this year. We lucked out all of the other years and maybe it'd happen again. It's not that I really wanted to be in the same class as him, it's just that everybody decided that I was someone to be feared and they only talked to me if they needed something. I guess they decided this because I didn't talk to anyone unless I was spoken to first. Though, I suppose punching the kid that took Fay's lunch money in third grade probably had something to do with it too...I got a short suspension for that, and Arashi and Sorata grounded me for a week. I can remember Souma snickering at that when Arashi explained why I was home that day. Once they both left for work that day though, Souma said, "You're a good friend to Fay-chan."

I had scowled and began to attack my punishment chores, "That kid was stupid and mean anyway."

I pulled on my school uniform and eventually I left my room for the bathroom to brush my teeth.

Fay also made class a lot more interesting. There were times when Fay would allow his true genius to show, but there were also times when he could just do something that made no sense at all. I can remember one day in fourth grade when we were learning long division the teacher asked, "Flourite, what is 950 divided by five?" And Fay answered with something along these lines: "Do you think that other worlds have things like division?"

"Other worlds?" The teacher had asked.

"Yeah, you know, with like magic users and flying cars?"

"Flourite, get your head out of the clouds and please return to this world and answer my question."

Honestly, where did Fay even come up with something like that? Things like other worlds were complete nonsense. I asked Fay about it later and he said, "Wouldn't that make life more interesting?"

I rinsed out my mouth and spat in the sink before heading out to the kitchen where Sorata was complimenting Tomoyo on her new school uniform.

"Tomoyo, you look so adorable! Like a mini version of your mother." Sorata fawned. He then noticed me walk in, "Morning! Have something to eat."

Arashi set down a plate of eggs and toast for me at the table. I sat down and began to eat.

"It's exciting to have Tomoyo going to the same school as you, right, Kurogane?" Arashi asked as she began doing the dishes with the help of Sorata.

I just kind of shrugged my shoulders and continued eating. Ok, so I was a little exciting. I was sure that Tomoyo was going to have a good year. I was kind of looking forward to showing her around the school, though it wasn't a very big school and I doubted that she would get lost.

"Well, I think that it's going to be fun." Tomoyo chimed in, "You liked first grade, and elementary school, so I think I will too."

I made a little grunt of acknowledgement as I finished up my breakfast.

"A little hungry this morning, Kurogane?" Sorata asked with a chuckle as he took my empty plate from me and washed it along with the other plates.

"I just ate quickly because we have to go soon." I said.

"Really?" Tomoyo glance up toward the clock on the wall, "Oh, I suppose that we do."

One thing that I always admired about Tomoyo was her natural intelligence. Even though she was still a lot younger than me, she spoke like she was at least my age or older. She always seemed to have this sort of inbred intelligence and I was sure that she would enjoy going to school for that reason. I only went to school because it was mandatory, though I guess I never really minded too much.

I rose from the table and headed back to my bedroom to dig out my backpack from the bottom of my closet. After about five minutes of fruitless searching I said, "Has anyone seen my backpack?"

"I got it out for you last night because I knew that you wouldn't be able to find it this morning." Tomoyo said from my door way, holding my bag out for me. I didn't really know how long she had been standing there, probably long enough to enjoy my frustrated searching well enough, but that didn't really matter.

"Thanks." I said, "Are you ready to go?" I asked while taking my backpack and slipping it over my shoulders.

"Yes." She said with a cheery smile on her face. She led the way out of the room and kissed her parents goodbye. I gave a half-hearted wave and said, "See you." And the two of us left the apartment and walked in silence out of the building. The weather outside was pretty decent. The sun was out at least, and it had to have been 70 degrees or so.

"I'm looking forward to my first day as an elementary school student." Tomoyo started up a conversation, "I hope that I'll make a lot of friends this year."

"You will." I responded.

"How do you know for sure?"

"Because you're that type of person." I said, "Someone who gets along with everyone. I mean, you're somehow able to stand Souma."

"Souma-san is a very nice person. I never understood why you two were unable to get along."

"She's annoying and bossy." I frowned. Tomoyo just laughed. Souma still babysat us after school and on the weekends when Sorata and Arashi went out, but she got a day job helping someone teach karate during the day. She had been teaching me since I entered elementary school. It was kind of fun. Fay had told me that karate and fighting wasn't really his style and that he preferred to avoid fights or anything like that, which was, I guess, why he was so friendly to everyone.

Before I knew it we had joined several other groups of walkers and the school was within our sight. The school was broken into three sections. Elementary school took place in one building, and middle school and high school took place in another. The last building was dorm rooms for high school students who wanted them.

I was suddenly torn from my thoughts by some horrendously annoying voice calling mangled versions of my name through the crowd of people behind us.

"Kuro-rin!" The carrier of said annoying voice broke through the crowd of people and I turned around only to have my vision lost in a mop of blond hair as Fay wrapped his arms around me in one of the tightest hugs I had ever experienced.

"Kuro-tan, I've missed you so much!" Fay said as he finally let go of me.

"Fay-san, you were over a few weeks ago, weren't you?" Tomoyo asked as I attempted to regain my breath.

"Well, yes, but a few weeks is far too long for me to be away from Kuro-pon."

"Kurogane." I muttered, but the two of them were already off on a conversation and I was being dragged along by Tomoyo's hand on my left, and Fay attached to my arm on the right.

Tomoyo and Fay had become fast friends as soon as they met. I think it was when we were eight and Tomoyo was about three. I had never had Fay over my house before then because I didn't want to bother Sorata and Arashi even though they repeatedly said that it was fine if I wanted to have friends over. I guess it was Fay's asking almost every day that eventually got to me.

"Ah hah! This cutie must be the Tomoyo-chan that Kuro-wanwan is always talking about!" Fay had said upon seeing Tomoyo.

"And, you're probably the Fay-san that Kurogane is always talking about." Tomoyo replied, smiling brightly at the awful nickname that Fay had chosen for me that day. That was only the second most embarrassing thing that happened that day.

Fay had decided that my bed was a good place for him to sit, and as he was inspecting it he discovered the picture that he had drawn for me when we were in preschool.

"Aw! Maybe Kuro-chan has a soft spot after all!" Fay had spoke in a joking tone, but something about his face showed that he was genuinely happy that I had kept the picture after all these years.

"Hey! Who said that you could go around searching through all my stuff?" I said, keeping my typical anger the only emotion visible as I snatched the picture from Fay's hands.

"It's not my fault that your bed crinkled when I sat on it."

"Yeah, well, when I come over your house I get to search through your stuff then." I mumbled, not really being serious at all as I stuffed the picture back under my pillow.

"Well, what if I don't let you come over my house? That way you'll never discover any of my secrets!" Fay said. I stared at him for a moment. The tone of his voice was still the same, but it was different this time, as if there were a hidden seriousness beneath the joke. I had dropped the subject at that point.

I still haven't been over Fay's house.

Suddenly I felt a tapping on my shoulder, "Kuro-rin, I think I found a few little, lost ducklings from Tomoyo-chan's grade!" Fay pointed to a group of four first graders up ahead.

Two of them were wearing some sort of headband that had cat-like ears coming out where their regular ears were, and both had obnoxiously long blond hair. The other girl in the group had big green eyes and short brown hair with a cowlick in the back that caused a few strands to stick up a little. The last member of the group was an angry looking brown-haired boy.

Fay ran up to the group and smiled brightly at them, "You four look a little lost." I heard him say as Tomoyo and I caught up.

"Y-yes." The brown-haired girl said, "We were following my brother and his friend, but we lost him in the crowd." The poor girl looked close to tears, and probably would have cried already if it weren't for the boy awkwardly holding her hand.

"Don't worry." Tomoyo said with a small smile on her features, "It's my first day here too. I'm sure that we'll find your brother and his friend. If not, I'm sure that Kurogane and Fay-san won't mind helping you find your classroom."

I frowned a little as Tomoyo volunteered me to lead four random kids around. But, I wouldn't have left them standing there anyway.

"Oh, excuse me for not introducing myself." Tomoyo continued, "My name is Tomoyo." She introduced, adding a polite bow as she did so.

"It's nice to meet you, Tomoyo-chan. This is Chii-chan and her sister Freya-chan, and Syaoran Li-kun. I'm Sakura Kinomoto." Sakura explained.

"Hm? Kinomoto? Would your brother happen to be Touya-kun?" Fay asked. It was probably very likely, it wasn't like Kinomoto was a very common name. Touya was in my grade. I got along with him well enough, though I didn't go out of my way to talk to him or anything like that. He always was hanging around with this other kid from our grade, Yukito Tsukishiro. Apparently they had known each other for a long time, like me and Fay I guess.

"Yes! Do you know him?" Sakura asked, her eyes lighting up at the sound of her brother's name.

"Sakura!"

"Sakura-chan?" Two voices called through the hustle and bustle of students.

"Ah, speak of the devil." Fay said with a laugh as Touya and Yukito appeared from somewhere off to my right. "We found your sister, Touya-kun."

I rolled my eyes at Fay for pointing out the obvious.

"Ah, thank you, Fay-kun, Kurogane-kun." Yukito thanked him while Touya inspected his sister...either that or he was glaring at Syaoran. It was kind of hard to tell.

"It was no trouble. We just kind of ran into them. Hey, Touya-kun, Kuro-rin's sister, Tomoyo-chan, is in the same grade as these guys." Fay pointed out.

"Yes, I hope that we'll all be in the same class together." Tomoyo said.

"My sister and these other three are in class 1-B." Touya pointed a thumb at the group.

"Where did you see the class list?" Fay inquired.

"Our lists are all posted in the main entrance to the elementary school. You both are in class 5-D with me and Yuki." Touya said, "I would have looked for your sister, Kurogane-kun, but I wasn't too sure of her name."

"Oh, thanks anyway." I said. The fact that he even knew I had a sort-of-sister was kind of amazing. I rarely talked to people about my family stuff because it was complicated.

"Hyuu! Kuro-chan, we're in the same class again, and with Touya-kun and Yukito-kun as well!" Fay exclaimed. I always found it annoying how Fay did that. He couldn't whistle, or so he said, and so he "Hyuu'd" instead. "Let's go find these little children's classrooms. Chii-chan, Freya-chan, why don' you both follow me." Fay said, offering his hands to the two younger girls. They shyly took his hands and he began leading the way to the elementary school building. Somehow, Tomoyo had made her way from me to Sakura and Syaoran. The three of them chatted while following Fay. I stuffed my hands into my pockets and frowned as the realization that maybe Tomoyo didn't need me as much as I thought she did finally hit me in the face. Touya and Yukito walked alongside me, Touya's expression almost perfectly mirroring mine.

Yukito looked toward the two of us, adjusted his glasses and said, "You both have major sister complexes."

"Do not." We both responded in an agitated unison.

Yukito just gave a bit of a quiet chuckle, "Of course not."

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Freya, Chii and Syaoran will most likely speak next chapter. ;;

Um, yeah, Chii and Freya's ears will also get explained somewhere along these lines.

I don't really know what to write for elementary school...HELP! If you have anything you'd like to see in this section of the story, please just, throw it out there! I'm so stuck! I can keep writing, but there won't be many eventful things, so if you have some sort of elementary school experience that you wish to let me borrow, PLEASE share. Thank you!

I typed this late at night, so sorry if there's stuff I missed while editing...

Also, do you see what I mean about the ending?! I think that this was just screaming END ME NOW! THIS IS GOOD!

Also thank you bloodytwistedangel for helping with the title and the summary!!

This happens to be take 2 of this chapter actually. Thank you, Phiso, for catching the pretty much hilarious part of this story where I accidentally made Kurogane compliment Tomoyo's rear...


	5. Elementary 2

Wow, it feels like forever since I posted my last chapter...It's been in my notebook for the past week, but then life was like, what's up? And I was like OMG -runs around- I've been so busy doing absolutely nothing for the past week. No joke.

Also, I've just realized this. The only time that I write is in my free period at school...But, I get out of school next week! I hope I can find a good time to randomly write stuff during summer break, or you'll all be like, what the crap!

Expect another note at the end about this chapter and honorifics and such...Enjoy!

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Eventually we made our way to the class lists, discovering that Tomoyo was in the same class as the other four that we found earlier. When we were leading them to their class, well more like when Fay was leading them, I looked at the headbands of the two girls Fay was chatting amiably with. There had to be some reason why they would wear something so strange looking.

"They're hearing aids." Yukito explained to me when he caught me looking at them. "Their father is an incredible scientist, and when he discovered that his daughters were deaf, he created those for them to wear so they could hear."

Well, that made sense, but their father should have designed them less strange looking.

"Well, here we are!" Fay said, "It has been lovely chatting with you both, and I wish you the very best of luck on your first day of school." Fay said in a flight-attendant like manner.

"I'll see you after school, Kurogane." Tomoyo said, peering up at me.

"I'll meet you by the school gate." I added. She nodded and hugged me goodbye before going into the classroom with Sakura, who had already finished saying goodbye to Touya, and Syaoran.

Once they were in the room the four of us walked in a comfortable silence to our classroom. Upon opening the door we were greeted with a loud racket, amazingly created by one person, excluding the girl who was just laughing quietly at the boy. The boy was yelling at another boy, who seemed immune to the shouting.

"I can't believe you just ate that! I made that special for Himawari-chan as a first day of school present, and you just plucked it out of my hands and ate it!"

The one man rant continued and the four of us, along with a growing number of students who were in our class, just stared awkwardly at the three people.

I tried to wait and see if the boy who was being yelled at would ever break, but when he didn't, and when our teacher had yet to appear, I decided to take matters into my own hands, to save all of our ears. I glanced around the room and I found a stack of heavy books. I picked them up easily, carried them to the nearest desk and let them drop. The books collided with the metal making a loud BANG as they did so. The shouter jumped out of his skin after effectively being shut up, and he found the source of the noise and discovered me glaring at him.

"What'd you do that for?" The boy asked.

"You were being obnoxious." I answered simply as I put the books back where I had found them.

"Please don't mind Watanuki-kun, he's like this a lot." Great, now I had to deal with this for a whole year. Himawari, I guessed that was her name from what the boy had shouted before, continued, "I don't think we've ever been in the same class. I'm Kunogi, Himawari, and these two are Watanuki, Kimihiro and Doumeki, Shizuka."

"Kurogane." I muttered. I glanced at the desks around me and noticed that each one had a name tag with everyone's names. I began looking for my name when I heard Fay speak.

"He prefers the name Kuro-chan though."

"I do not." I growled as I sat down in my seat. It was in the middle of the room and in the front row, probably the worst seat you could ever have.

"Oh, that's right. Kuro-wan is actually his favorite." Fay laughed and then once he found his seat, in the back corner by the window, the lucky jerk, said, "You can call me Fay."

Following our examples the rest of the class began searching for their seats. Now all that was left was for the teacher to show up.

All of a sudden a loud creaking was heard in the ceiling tiles. Seconds later something large fell from the ceiling and onto the floor behind the teacher's desk, a few feet in front of me. A couple of the girls screamed at the noise and I jumped a little. You would too if something fell from the ceiling above you.

The dust cleared and we all stood up to see what had falling through the ceiling when something jumped up from the ceiling's remains and said, "Icchan go boom!"

A few of the people shouted again, but most of us stared at the crazy man standing before us. When an awkward silence settled in, he spoke.

"Anyway...Good morning class, my name is Mihara-sensei, and I have received the honor of teaching this lovely bunch for the rest of the school year!"

I sat back down in my seat and continued to stare at the freak before me. There was no way that this creep in a lab coat was certified to teach.

"Mihara-san? Aren't you Chii-chan's and Freya-chan's father?" I heard Yukito ask from somewhere behind me.

"Ah, yes, that would be me! It's good to see you again, Tsukishiro-kun, you too, Kinomoto-kun."

That threw me for a loop. There was no way that "Mihara-sensei" was some sort of amazing scientist, and, if he was, what was he doing teaching fifth grade at a random school?

"Moving on, your original teacher happened to quit her job last week. When I found out that the school was short a teacher, I said, 'Why not?' and they let me teach you all." Ah, so he just sort of fell into the job then, "That said, I really don't have a plan for today, so we're just going to play one of those 'get to know you' games. I want you to state your name, hobbies, what you want to be when you grow up, and a random fact about yourself. I'll go first.

"I'm Mihara, Ichiro. I enjoy tinkering around with electronics. I'm already grown up, and I work with a large electronics company. A random fact about me is that I have a lovely wife and two beautiful children." He gushed, causing a few people to giggle. The game then made its way around the room.

"I'm Kurogane. I study martial arts. I don't know what I'm going to do when I'm older, and I have no random facts."

"My name is Tsukishiro, Yukito. I sometimes play sports of other teams need a player, so I guess that counts as a hobby. When I grow up I think I'd enjoy writing, and a random fact about me is that I've never found a food I didn't like."

"Kinomoto, Touya. I don't have one single hobby; I like a lot of stuff. When I get older I plan on doing a lot of different jobs. A random fact would be that I enjoy working with tools and stuff, I guess."

"Um, Watanuki, Kimihiro. I like to cook and clean and things like that. When I grow up though, I'd like to open my own restaurant. A random fact about me is that I learned to cook from my father."

"Doumeki, Shizuka. Archery."

"That's it?!"

"Yeah."

"Geez, you're so lazy! Everyone else--"

I glared back at Watanuki and once he shut up the torture game continued.

"I'm Kunogi, Himawari. Hanging out with friends is a hobby, right? Anyway, I'm not too sure what I want to be when I grow up, but maybe something dealing with animals! And, a random fact about me is that I have a pet bird."

"I'm Fay D. Flourite, but Fay will do fine. I like to draw a lot. I have these really nice pencils and...anyway... When I grow up I think I'd like to be a science teacher. A fact about me is that I work best when Kuro-pon sits next to me." Fay pointed to the empty chair next to him.

"Do you now?" Mihara asked.

"Well, he actually works better sitting next to me. You see, he's kind of bad at math and I need to help him to understand."

I put my head down on my desk while Fay and the teacher had their "let's embarrass Kurogane" conversation.

"Well, if that's the case, I don't see why he can't move." Mihara mused.

"Great! Now Kuro-chan can sit with me!"

I sighed and picked up my backpack and moved to my new spot beside Fay.

When Mihara began talking again, Fay stealthily passed a piece of paper onto my desk. I stared at the paper for a while before opening it. It took me a while to figure out Fay's loopy excuse for handwriting, but once I did it said, "I thought you wouldn't like sitting in the front and center seat."

I glanced toward Fay, who was listening to the teacher talk about some random stuff that I didn't care about, and I thought that maybe he wasn't all that stupid.

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Yes, yes, short, I know. But, the next chapter is going to so own all over the place, so it's all good. It's already 6.5 written pages, and I just got into the plot motion. Bwahaha. Long chapters happen when I find blue pens; this chapter was written in black.

Anyway, so, I was concerned with the honorifics for Icchan. Because I wanted him to be Icchan-sensei, or Ichiro-sensei, but knew that Mihara-sensei was the proper way to write it...I think. Anywayyy, when he started talking about his family he reminded me of that guy from FMA...Hughes?

Also, about Chii and Freya. Honestly, they aren't Chii or Freya without the headbands, yes? So, I came up with a good reason for them to have them on. nn Also, it kind of makes sense in an abstract way, because without their ears in Chobits or TRC, they wouldn't be able to hear, so...Yeah, no, it doesn't make sense, but I like it.

The next chapter will most likely be the last chapter for the elementary school section. Unless I reach a good breaking point, which is likely, and then I will stop it, and there will be another chapter.

Also, you can expect this next chapter to be more delayed getting on the nets than this one was. I have to study for finals, and make up work and all this other stuff in the next two weeks, and I'm going to be busy a lot from now until July 13th. I'm going to Conneticon! If you're going, find me! I'll be dressed up as Misty from Pokemon one day, Mikuru from Haruhi Suzumiya the second day and -drumroll- FAY ON THE THIRD DAY. Staff, coat and everything.

Ok, enough rambling.

Thank you for reading!


	6. Elementary 3

Yay for before notes-

The last chapter was 7 pages handwritten. This one is just about 18. You're in for a treat. Haha. I told you it would be longer!  
Also, you'll be glad to know that I am sacrificing my studying for tomorrow's History final to upload a new chapter for you! Aren't I lovely? Hehe. Anyway, more notes later, for now, enjoy! 3

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I don't remember that year being particularly exciting. Mihara was definitely one of the weirdest teachers I'd ever had. He would be completely relaxed at one moment, and then bouncing off the walls at the next. He assigned us a lot of projects to do, majority of them were group projects too. I didn't mind that, sometimes I would have preferred to work alone, but that was just me. I usually ended up being saddled with Fay in my group, and whoever he happened to pick up along the way. It was usually Touya and Yukito, though we did work with the loud mouth at one point. He was surprisingly alright when he wasn't arguing about something.

Tomoyo had friends over a lot more than I did. Whenever one of them came over, the rest usually followed within the hour.

"The more the merrier, right?" Tomoyo would say when I would ask her why she always had the whole group over. They all would chat amiably in the living room, and Tomoyo would usually end up drawing outfits for each of them while they played. Tomoyo had a talent for everything that she seemed to do, but she liked drawing outfits, taking pictures and singing the most.

"When I'm old enough to use the sewing machine, I'll create everyone nice outfits to wear. And, I'll be able to use a video camera one day too!" Tomoyo laughed, "I'm glad that I'm at least old enough to sing in the school choir."

About halfway through the year Arashi let her use the sewing machine, and Tomoyo was good at it instantly. She made an outfit for herself first. It was a purple dress with an abstract pattern sewn into the sides.

The next time her friends were over she took their measurements and began designing something in her sketch book while they all played some sort of board game. I hid in my room to avoid Tomoyo's creative expression.

I felt bad for the boy that was there, Syaoran. He was in Souma's martial arts class now, and I often found myself partnered with him, and helping him. Syaoran was pulled into Tomoyo's escapades and his outfits were usually a simpler, boyish version of what Tomoyo had made for Sakura.

It always seemed that Tomoyo was trying to set the two of them up. And, even though they obviously liked each other, it was probably, no, definitely mortifyingly embarrassing for the two of them.

Tomoyo usually dressed the Mihara twins in contrasting colors, white and black mostly. Though, sometimes Chii got an ice blue color.

Tomoyo would usually trap anyone who walked in the door, get their measurements, and design something for them. I was surprised that she only made something for me once. She had just sewn a simple shirt with a red moon on the pocket. I liked it, but I never really said I did. I guess the fact that I wore it was enough for Tomoyo.

"I'm glad that you like it, Kurogane."

"Mm."

"I should make something for Fay-san as well." I raised an eyebrow when she said that. Her eyes sparkled at the thought, and I could practically see the gears in her mind twisting and creating something. I never thought she'd actually try it though, especially while her friends were over.

It had been raining all day, so her friends had stayed in, and I'd been forced to hide in my room.

Someone had knocked on the door around lunch time, but I paid no mind. Sorata or Arashi would answer it. After a couple of minutes my curiosity, or my hunger, I wasn't sure which, got a hold of me and I wandered out into the kitchen. As soon as I got within view of the living room I heard, "Kuro-rin!"

I stopped in my tracks and saw Fay standing dripping wet in the middle of the room with his arms out and Tomoyo was attacking him with a measuring tape.

"I didn't know that Tomoyo-chan was a designer to be." Fay said. It was hard for me to tell if he was shocked and feeling awkward or surprised and delighted. I suspected the latter.

"Tomoyo is always wanting to make everyone clothing." Chii said. The girl looked as though she had been having a conversation with Fay before I showed up.

"What are you doing here anyway?" I asked.

"Well, I--"

"Move your arm up a little please." Tomoyo said.

"Oh, sure." Fay adjusted his arm and then looked back to me, "I was bored at my house."

"So, you decided to walk here in the rain?"

"Pretty much."

I stared at him for a few seconds, annoyed at the stupid grin on his face, before Tomoyo said, "All done." The girl grabbed her sketch pad and began chatting happily away with her friends as she drew.

Fay nodded and thanked Tomoyo before attempting to make his way out of the living room and over to me. He paused as he got to Chii and he patted her on the head, "I'll talk to you again soon." He smiled and then was at my side in about two steps.

"You're dripping everywhere." I pointed out. I decided that the food could wait and I headed for my room, Fay followed.

"Really, Kuro-wan? I hadn't noticed." I could hear Tomoyo and her friends giggle at that before I entered my room.

After a couple minutes of digging through my dresser and closet I found some clothes that had the potential to fit Fay, but I grabbed a belt anyway.

"Go change. Towels are in the bathroom closet."

Fay looked a little confused over what I had just said, but he nodded.

"Thank you, Kuro-chan."

I never really knew why he had come over that day. Sane people don't go out for walks in downpours just because they're bored. Then again, Fay was never really sane to begin with.

Tomoyo's masterpiece for Fay was a long sleeved shirt, which was what he almost always wore, with blue designs sewn in at the collar and on the sleeves.

"I love it, Tomoyo-chan!" Fay had said when Tomoyo had given it to him a few weeks later. He wore it almost every time he knew he would see Tomoyo, which was probably why he was wearing it today.

Today was the last day of school and to celebrate, the Elementary School was going into the city to visit a science museum. Since we weren't going to be in the school at all that day, we didn't need to wear our uniforms.

"Isn't Fay hot?" Chii asked while we filed onto the bus. There were a few busses, but we got to choose which one we wanted to go on, so we all ended up together.

"Not really, no." Fay said, "I just like to wear long sleeved shirts." He said as he stifled back a yawn, "Sorry, I couldn't get any sleep last night."

"Why not?"

"Well, I had this nightmare and..." Fay lowered his voice and whispered the rest of the sentence to Chii. The girl looked positively petrified, glanced at me, and then scrambled onto the bus; Fay climbed on after her.

"What did you tell her?"

"Oh, nothing, Kuro-pon!"

"It's Kurogane."

"Mhm." Fay said as he took a seat. I made to walk to the next empty seat, but Fay's hand caught mine and pulled me down next to him.

"We're going to end up doubling up anyway," Fay said, "So you might as well just sit here."

I scowled, but what Fay had said was true. I'd rather sit with someone I knew rather than a brat that I didn't.

Fay yawned and then peered over the seats in front and behind us to see who was there. Sakura and Syaoran sat in front of us, Tomoyo and a boy who later introduced himself as Eriol sat across from them. Chii and Freya were next to us, and behind them were Watanuki and Doumeki. Watanuki was turned around in his seat to talk to Himawari behind him, so he might as well not have sat where he was. Touya and Yukito sat behind us. They were probably there so that Touya was close enough to keep an eye on his sister, but far enough away that he wouldn't be annoying to her.

I didn't really know why Touya had it in for Syaoran anyway. I guess it was just because he didn't want to lose his sister to anyone, but Syaoran was a good kid. I got to know him a lot through studying with him at the martial arts school. He had a bit of an ego on him and a temper he had yet to control, but he would grow out of that and become a respectable kid. But, I'd never tell him that to his face.

"What are you thinking about, Kuro-rin?" Fay asked suddenly, "You look like you're thinking about life's purpose or something."

"I was just thinking." I replied. By this point the bus was already on the highway and everyone was talking. Mihara was also leading some sort of sing-a-long that I refused to take part in; about half of the people on the bus were though.

"Oh, ok." Fay said, and he went back to staring out the window at the landscape that was rushing past us. Just when I thought he was done talking he said, "Hey, Kuro-rin?"

"Mm?"

"Museums are pretty big, huh? People can get lost in them easily, right?"

"Yeah." I said, not really getting where he was going with this.

"If you got lost in a museum, where would you go?" He asked, turning to look at me.

"I don't know. I just wouldn't get lost." I responded.

"I would go to the planetarium."

"Why?"

"If I lost myself anywhere, I'd want to lose myself in the sky." Fay smiled and then turned back to the window.

I barely had time to think about what Fay had said when the bus jerked to a stop.

"Students! Settle down." Mihara's voice carried over the chatter and soon everyone was quiet. "Thank you. The people on this bus are the people you will be spending the rest of the day with. Take a look at them. If you get separated from the group, look for there people. Got it?" After a clamorous "Yes!" from us all, Mihara straightened his lab coat and said, "Well then...last one inside is a rotten egg!" And with that he was off the buss and heading for the museum. We all followed off after him, some walking, some running, and we made out way into the museum.

After a few minutes of waiting we got started on our tour, directed by "Tour guide Icchan" as he dubbed himself. Because the world's craziest teacher was leading the tour, half of it didn't make sense anyway, and I tuned into the conversations around me.

Tomoyo was chatting with Sakura about the outfit that she was currently making for her, while Syaoran stood off awkwardly to the side while the girls chatted. It was hard to tell who was the third wheel, him or Tomoyo. Fay was walking up ahead with Chii and Freya. Freya seemed to only be there because Chii was there. Chii was holding Fay's hand while they walked, and he would occasionally pat her on her head like she was a cat. He glanced back at me a few times as if to check that I was still there, not that I had anywhere else to go.

---

Just before we broke for lunch we went to the planetarium. It was a domed room that was painted black, and the only light came from the fake stars that were in the ceilings and walls. It was so dark in the room that if you held your hand up a foot in front of your face, you weren't able to see it.

Mihara talked on and on about things like constellation and black holes and all this other crap I didn't bother listening to, and after that we went to the food court for lunch. I couldn't find Fay, I figured he had gotten stuck with the first graders because Chii was so clingy to him, so I ended up sitting with Watanuki, Himawari, and Doumeki, which turned out to be a good idea because Watanuki made a lunch to feed an army, and my sandwich didn't quite cut it.

"Where's Fay-kun?" Himawari asked.

"I don't know."

"That's weird. You guys are almost always together." Himawari pondered, "Just like Watanuki-kun and Doumeki-kun!"

Watanuki scowled at that, but didn't say anything because he didn't want to hurt Himawari's feeling, most likely anyway.

"How long have you guys known each other anyway?" She asked.

"Preschool."

"Really? Wow! That's amazing that you've been friends for so long! You must know so much about him."

"Not really." I said. It was true. I'd known him for about seven years and the closest thing I'd come to his house was his telephone number.

"Well, I'm sure that you both are closer than you realize." Himawari smiled.

---

The rest of the day took us through "the vast deserts of ancient Egypt, the beautiful ways of the ancient Greeks, the humbling might of the dinosaurs," and several other attractions that had been given even more pointless and stupid names by Mihara.

Around five we all piled back onto the busses. I sat down in my seat and watched as Chii and Freya walked on the bus, and I raised an eyebrow when Fay wasn't with them. Maybe he had been with Touya and Yukito, but they boarded the bus without him too. Mihara had begun to do the headcount, and Fay still wasn't on the bus.

I stood up to see if he had sat somewhere else and Mihara asked, "Is something wrong, Kurogane-kun?"

"He's not here." I said.

"Who?" Mihara then glanced next to me, "Oh! Fay-kun is missing..."

With that, every head on the bus began turning as if they were checking to make sure he really wasn't there.

"I'll radio the other busses and let them know; maybe he got the busses mixed up and is just on the wrong one." Mihara headed for the front of the bus and he picked up the radio, a little too calmly in my opinion for a situation like this.

I grumbled and kicked the seat in front of me, causing the people in it to make a disgruntled "Oof!" noise.

Syaoran and Sakura peered over the seat and looked at me.

"Are you alright, Kurogane-san?" Sakura asked.

I made a mumbled reply that even I didn't understand and Sakura looked to Syaoran, who shrugged.

"Kurogane-san, do you have any idea where he might be?" Syaoran asked.

"No. I barely talked to him today. The only thing he said to me was--!"

_"I would go to the planetarium."_

_"Why?"_

_"If I lost myself anywhere, I'd want to lose myself in the sky."_

I blinked and kicked the side of the bus instead of Sakura and Syaoran's chair, "Idiot!" I said. With that I ran down the aisle only to have my way blocked by Mihara, who was still radioing the busses.

"Kurogane-kun, we already have one lost student, we don't need another."

"But, I--!"

"No buts, go back and sit."

I glared at him and began making my way back to my seat. I could feel everyone's eyes on me and I began searching. Busses had alternate ways out...My eyes stopped at the back door. I smirked and glanced back at Mihara. His back was turned and he ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

I silently thanked the gods for my change of luck and I bolted toward the back door.

I grabbed the handle and pulled hard. As soon as the door opened an alarm sounded throughout the bus. I hadn't expected that. I turned around to see Mihara drop the radio and head toward me. I jumped out of the bus and ran to the museum as fast as my legs would carry me, and I didn't stop running until I reached my destination: the planetarium.

I walked into the dark room and I began to try and search for him. I didn't call out for him. Something about the room made me feel like my voice would get swallowed if I did anyway.

"Oof!" I had tripped over something and fallen onto it. When I tried to move off of it, it touched my face. It was an alive something.

"Kuro-tan? What are you doing on top of me?" Asked Fay's sleepy voice.

"You shouldn't be worried about what I'm doing, what are you doing?!" I hissed as I stood up, pulling Fay up with me. His face was really close to min so that I could see it. "You've been in this room all day, nobody knew where you were! Were you planning on living out the rest of your life in here or something?!"

"I fell asleep. It was really dark and my mind got lost in looking at the stars, and I fell asleep." Fay said, glancing up at the ceiling.

"I don't care! The point is that nobody knew what happened to you! Someone could have just come in and take you!" I was shouting now.

"Maybe I wanted someone to come and take me away with them." He said in a quiet voice.

"Are you stupid or some--!"

"Kuro-pon?" He interrupted. When I didn't say anything he took it as his opportunity to speak, "Are you mad at me?"

"Yes." I said.

"You're not going to hit me, are you?" He asked, his voice just above a whisper.

"What?" I growled, offended, "Why would I--" I stopped when Fay threw his arms around me. He drew in a shaky breath as if he was holding back tears.

"Thank you." He whispered into my shirt. "Hey, Kuro-wan, we should go to the country sometime and see the real stars. We'll go somewhere real far away, and count stars together." Fay clung to me a little tighter, "Can I ask you a favor, Kuro-rin?"

"What?"

"Can you pretend that I never said what I did before, about if you were going to hit me?" Fay looked up at me; his eyes were stern and strict. I'd never seen them like that before, though it might have just been the darkness.

"Sure..." I said slowly.

"Can I ask you something else?" Fay paused, "Well, two things."

"Yeah?"

"I fell down the stairs last night, I was going to get a cup of water, and I fell down all twelve stairs. Anyway, the point is, I got a lot of bruises, and walking perfectly all day made me hurt even more, so, could you carry me?" He asked.

"If you hurt yourself so bad, why didn't you just stay home?" I asked with a frown.

"I didn't want to." He said, his voice was cold.

"Oh." I said, "Ok...what else did you want to ask?"

"Could I stay over your house tonight?" He asked quietly.

"Why?"

"To celebrate the first night of summer, silly!" Fay smiled.

"Sure, I guess."

"Yay!" Fay said.

"Here, climb on my back, we need to get back out to the busses." I said. As he did so, I wondered what sort of awful trouble we were going to get into for causing such a mess.

---

After a few minutes of walking we made it to the lobby of the museum where the angriest Mihara I've ever seen stood waiting with a few other chaperones.

"Mihara-sensei!" Fay waved. I sighed; Mihara was not the type to wave back right now.

"Fay-kun, Kurogane-kun, where have you been?" He asked, his voice frustrated and tense.

"Well," I began.

"It's all my fault, Mihara-sensei." Fay continued for me, "I had gone to the bathroom during lunch, and when I returned, everyone was gone! I panicked and hid in the planetarium. I realized later that I could call Kurogane's cell phone from a pay phone. See, this is his cell phone!" Fay pulled a silver phone out of his pocket and handed it to me, "And, on the way to the pay phone I tripped, and that's why he's carrying me."

I sure hoped that I didn't look as awestruck as I felt, because that lie was so well constructed that I almost believed it, and I knew what actually happened.

"Kurogane-kun, if Fay-kun told you where he was, why didn't you tell me instead of running off of the bus the way you did?" Mihara asked.

"I tried." I said slowly, forming my white lie in my head as I spoke, "You told me to go sit back down. So, I had no other choice but to go find him myself." In a matter of minutes Fay and I had lied our way to clear names and had pinned the blame on Mihara, who looked very embarrassed and guilty by this point.

"I-I see." Mihara said, looking to the other chaperones for some guidance. When they all shrugged, he changed the subject, "Fay-kun, do you need a nurse?"

"No, I'll be alright." Fay said. I made to put him down, but he held on tight.

"Ah, um, alright." After glancing around he said, "How about we don't mention this to anyone, hm? Good." He said without waiting for a response from either of us, "Let's get back to the bus.

---

Everyone was silent when I walked onto the bus carrying Fay. After we sat down everyone stared at us, demanding an explanation, "I'll tell you later." Fay had said.

Everyone groaned but gave up on asking when Mihara told the bus driver it was ok to leave. The rumors began spreading around the bus after that. Every so often Fay would confirm a ridiculous rumor that would cause everyone to gasp in shock.

By the time we arrived home, half of the people on the bus believed that Fay was a wanted criminal who got captured by the CIA, and I was his body guard with a telepathic connection with him. It was this reason that made me able to rescue him.

"Oh!" Fay said when we got off the bus. I was just supporting him now instead of carrying him, "Could I have my phone back?"

"Huh? Oh, sure." I said as I pulled out the phone and handed it to him, "When did you get a cell phone anyway?"

"The other day at the convenience store." He grinned and opened the phone, revealing a tray of candy, "Candy?" He asked with a laugh.

I stared at him in disbelief. We had fooled our teacher with a candy cell phone.

---

Back at my house we agreed never to speak of what happened that day to anyone. Well, Fay told Tomoyo, but she wouldn't tell anyone anyway.

"I wonder if that lying habit of yours will ever become a problem, Fay-san." Tomoyo said as she made her way out of my room. "Goodnight!" She smiled and shut the door.

"We should probably sleep too." I said, reaching for the light. I clicked it off and stepped over Fay's sleeping bag and climbed into bed.

After a few moments I heard footsteps and felt Fay climb into my bed. He snuggled into my back and took a deep breath before saying, "You're a good friend, Kuro-tan."

I grumbled something incomprehensible and I felt him laugh into my back.

"Good night, Kuro-sama."

----------------------

So, this better make up for my last chapter, especially because this one was beastly on my brain. I gave up studying for this, and then I got yelled at by my parents because I had got something in my eye, and couldn't get it out, and they needed me to do chores, and they were like, oh, wait, she's hurt! And then my mom had to help me get the something out of my eye, after I decided it would be a good idea to scratch my eye with my fingernail trying to get it out. And then my new blue pen died as I was writing this, and I had to find a new one, but it was all good because it wasn't a black pen, and I was a happy camper.

Anyway, I decided Tomoyo would need to learn how to sew pretty early if she is that amazing as a fourth grader in CCS. So, I figured first grade was a good time to start.

I got everyone into this chapter, but I still haven't really gotten Freya to talk, which is depressing, because -shifty eyes- You'll see.

Anyway, I REALLY LIKED WRITING THIS CHAPTER! It was so emotional to write, and I loved it. Love, love, love.

Also, it took me several weeks to write, so I have random little notes in the margins of my notebook reminding me to add stuff, and I saw them today, and I was like, what does that mean?? So, hopefully I didn't forget anything.

My brain is currently shot due to typing this for 2.5 hours/final exams, so I have nothing else that I need to say.

Thanks for reading! 3


	7. Middle School 1

Wow. Short. I think this beats the other short one. Sorry! I totally don't mean it, but, it just works out that way. TT Anyway, please keep an open mind while reading this chapter. I just kind of skipped over sixth grade, because most people count sixth as elementary, but my school system is wacked and has it as middle school. Besides, it works out more, and I jumped into elementary school four years late, so hopefully you all won't mind...This chapter is kind of depressing...I hope I didn't scare you away now...Haha, enjoy!

----------------------------

The summer between sixth and seventh grade was a fun summer, I guess. Sorata and Arashi rented a summer house for a month. It was a big house right on the ocean. I had only been to the ocean once before when I was little, so it was like I was seeing it for the first time. Fay had laughed at the amazed look that I apparently had on my face.

Sorata and Arashi had let us each bring a friend on the trip with us. Tomoyo had brought Sakura along, and when I said I didn't want to bring anyone she took the liberty of calling Fay for me.

It was strange to see Fay in a bathing suit. I was so used to the usual pants and long sleeved shirt. He had a few small bruises on his arms and his legs that he attributed to his clumsiness. Honestly, that didn't surprise me because Fay tended to trip over air on occasion.

Everyday that we were there was warm, and the six of us spent most of our time on the beach. I mostly just sat on the sand and watched everyone else play. Fay and Sakura would make a sand castle while Tomoyo would record them with the camera Arashi had bought for her; apparently almost-third grade was old enough to man a video camera.

"Sakura-chan is so cute on film!" Tomoyo would gush when she watched the playback of what she had recorded.

"Sakura-chan is just cute in general." Fay would laugh.

We made a bonfire on the beach on our last night there. Sorata had bought these little things to throw into the fire that changed the color of the flames. Fay was fascinated with them, and Tomoyo found great joy in filming him "Ooo" and "Ahh" at the colorful flames.

Sorata let off fireworks later that night. Sakura would sometimes jump when a particularly loud shot was fired off, and when we decided to tell ghost stories we had to stop because she was so frightened.

After packing up the next morning we got to look forward to a three hour ride back home. Everyone but me, well, Arashi and Sorata too, fell asleep, and somehow they all ended up leaning on me.

Fay had slumped over into my lap; Tomoyo was leaning on my shoulder, and Sakura was leaning on her. Fay looked like a small kitten the way he was curled up in my lap. I somehow freed a hand and I hesitantly reached to touch Fay's head. No sooner did I lay my hand down did Fay's eyes snap open and he protectively brought his arms up in front of his face.

I stared awkwardly at Fay for a moment, and he stared at me with wide eyes before saying, "Oh, it was only you, Kuro-chan." Fay sighed and he lowered his arms.

"Who else would it have been?" I muttered as I went to remove my hand from Fay's head.

Fay reached up and snatched my hand, "No." He placed my hand back on top of his head, "It felt nice." He whispered as he shut his eyes. I stayed still for a few minutes until I was almost positive that Fay had fallen back to sleep.

I cautiously ran my fingers through his hair. Fay's hair was always so messy and I thought that there would have been more knots than there were, but it was surprisingly soft, like a blanket or something. Seeing Fay curled up and small like that made it hard to believe that we would be starting middle school this year.

Fay had admitted to being nervous when we met up with him on the walk to school the first day.

"You shouldn't worry, Fay-san. I mean, how much different could middle school be from elementary school?" Tomoyo asked as she brushed some of her long black hair off of her shoulder.

"I don't know. I just have a bad feeling is all." Fay said softly, but his mood lifted with the next few words, "But, it's just a feeling, right?" He laughed it off.

I was a firm believer in the power of feelings, I always had been. I think I somehow inherited it from Souma or something. She always told the class to go with your gut instinct if you were in a bad situation, any situation really. So, I decided to take Fay's bad feeling seriously.

"Tomoyo-chan, are you going to try out for the after-school choir?" Fay asked, steering the conversation in a totally different direction, "The school finally decided to make one this year, and it's open to all grade levels."

"Of course I'll try out." Tomoyo beamed, "Are you, Fay-san? Your singing voice is lovely." She complimented.

A slight pink tinted Fay's cheeks at the compliment, "Oh, I don't know if--"

Fay was cut off by the sound of screeching tires, a loud crunching of metal, followed by screams. The three of us ran around the corner to see a vicious three-car accident. One car had hit two others by blowing off a red light. One was hit in the back on the driver's side, merely crimping half of the back seat and the front of the problem car. The other car looked like it had hit the problem car, folding the front of the innocent car.

Frantic screams were her from the people that had been watching the accident and the people involved. I could see some of the older students pulling out cell phones to call an ambulance.

A young boy scrambled from the backseat of the second car.

"Mom! Dad!" He shouted as he fell from the doorway and collapsed onto the pavement. His face was cut in several places and one of his legs appeared to be broken, it was bleeding enough to be anyway. "Mom! Dad!"

"That's Watanuki-kun!" Fay said suddenly, running out into the road before I could stop him. Taking a second glance at the kid, I realized that it was him. He wasn't wearing his glasses so I didn't recognize him. They probably broke in the accident which was why he had cuts on his face.

Watanuki's two friends ran onto the scene and took over for Fay just as sirens could be heard. It was then that three people fumbled out of the other innocent car.

"Kurogane, isn't that the Mihara's?" Tomoyo asked quietly, but there was no mistaking it was them.

"Freya!" Mihara shouted as he frantically tried to pull away the problem car from the back of his car to no avail. What I assumed was his wife stood nearby clutching a sobbing Chii close to her. The girl seemed not much better off than Watanuki.

Tomoyo turned away from the accident and hid her face in my arm; she held it tightly when the ambulances arrived.

It was then that Fay was forced from his current position holding Chii's hand next to her mother and back to me and Tomoyo.

His eyes were shaking and downcast as he fell into my chest, letting out a choked sob as he did.

"Watanuki-kun's parents...Freya...The moron who was driving the other car killed them!" Fay had started quietly and ended up shouting into my chest, "He killed them and took himself with them!" He hiccoughed and continued to shake in my arms even after the ambulances had left.

People still lingered and we were all at least an hour late for school. We eventually decided to get going. Tomoyo still clutched my arm, and Fay now walked beside me, his eyes red from crying.

---

The next day the school held a memorial service in the auditorium in honor of Watanuki's parents and Freya. A lot of students attended the service as Mihara was a popular teacher, and Mr. and Mrs. Watanuki were apparently very involved in the PTO.

It was there that we found out that the person driving the problem car had been bar hopping that whole night, and was still drunk that morning.

"Alcoholics are the worst scum on the earth." Fay muttered to me, "I hope he rots." The way Fay spoke made me feel as though he had been talking about someone other than the drunk driver.

It was then that I decided that bad feelings were even more powerful than I had originally thought. I just silently hoped that the rest of middle school wouldn't follow Fay's bad feeling.

----------------------------

SORRY! I apologize so much for this chapter. It was very hard to write, was very short, and very sad...I didn't like it at all. But, it had to be done. -nod-

Please forgive me...You've all been waiting a while, and I show up with this piece of gross. And, I haven't even been doing anything worthwhile. I've been playing Pokemon! And reading books! The only bad thing that slightly interrupted me was a crazy vicious bump on my head, and I'm so used to headaches it's not even funny. (It still hurts though...) So, I've really got no excuse for this chapter. I'm probably being hard on myself, but I just had such a hard time writing this...

Notes on this chapter-

I hope I'm not overdoing anything.

The car crash: If you are confused, please say so. I'm more than willing to draw out a diagram. It's hard to explain stuff like this, so you probably did get confused somewhere along the line.

Everyone sleeping in the car was the only thing I enjoyed writing in this chapter. Srsly. Everything else was so depressing.

PREVIEW FOR NEXT CHAPTER!

Fay and Tomoyo join clubs! Kurogane doesn't have any school spirit! And, the arrival of two long awaited characters! If you can guess who they are, you win my affection! (??)

I made arts, by the way. You can find them, if you so desire, at my DA:waterbender-chan


	8. Middle School 2

This chapter surprised me in the end. It took me a while to write due to the gross weather outside, more on that later, but overall, I'm pleased. And, when I finished it today, I was surprised at the way things worked out, and now I have to rethink the whole next chapter...Anyway, please read and enjoy!

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I think that there's a saying that goes, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." That's what Chii and Watanuki began doing about a week after the accident. Sure, the first week was rough for them. Neither one came to school for a few days, and when they did I found Chii crying on Tomoyo and Fay's shoulders at various points during the day. Watanuki had good control in class, but I found him sobbing in the bathroom more than once.

"K-Kurogane-kun!" He straightened up and wiped his eyes as if his crying would offend me.

"I don't care, y'know." I muttered, only continuing when Watanuki gave me a confused look, "If you're upset, cry." I explained.

He blinked a little bit before smiling, "Thanks." He paused, "Could you not mention this to anyone? Himawari-chan would have a fit if she knew I was still upset and didn't tell her." I nodded and went about my business.

But, after that they both began making lemonade. Chii's involved a large portion of Fay, but that was fine, I just didn't want to see her cry. Watanuki's lemonade involved cooking. He began making lunches for Himawari and, reluctantly, for Doumeki too and he even joined the cooking club after school. He was usually after school everyday now anyway to wait for Yuko to take him home. It was a complete shock when I found out that he lived with her now. I had been in my after school club, detention, for something I don't even remember, and when I saw Watanuki come in and sit down next to me, I eyed him curiously. He wasn't the type to get detention.

"I live with Yuko-sensei now." He had said, an unreadable emotion on his face, "So, since she's watching detention, I have to stay here."

"You live with that witch of a headmistress?" I hissed, glad that said witch hadn't entered the room yet.

"Yeah. She makes me do a lot of the cooking and cleaning..." He groaned, already sick of it after just over a week, but his expression softened, "But, I don't really know what I would have done without her."

"That doesn't change the fact that she's a cold-hearted bi--"

"Two weeks for insulting a teacher, Kurogane." Said the devil as she walked into the room.

I groaned, "But, I didn't--!"

"Do you want three?"

I sighed and slammed my fist down onto the desk, leaving a slight imprint.

"Three it is!" Yuko said with a chuckle.

"What? Why?!"

"Defilement of school property."

I groaned and settled for glaring out the window.

---

An hour later I had left the room only to be trapped again, this time by Fay's arms locking me into a hug.

"C'mon!" He said, taking my hand and pulling me down the hall, "You have to see the auditions!"

"Auditions for what?" I asked with a frown as I pulled my hand away from him. Fay pouted but kept walking, knowing that I was going to follow him anyway.

"For the after-school choir of course!" He answered with his usual easy smile on his lips, "You want to hear me and Tomoyo-chan sing, don't you?"

I made an indifferent grunt as my response, but I eventually found myself sitting down in the school auditorium with a quiet Fay next to me. Why was he so quiet all of a sudden? He had been chatty enough before we entered the auditorium...

"What's wrong?" I asked, keeping my voice quiet because someone was in the middle of an audition.

"I guess that I'm just nervous." Fay said, wrapping his arms around his stomach.

"You'll do fine." I mumbled, "At any rate, you'll do better than this girl."

The high school student on stage was evidently tone-deaf, didn't realize that she sounded like a sick cat, and put up a fight when the choir's director informed her that she didn't quite make the cut.

"Well, I suppose that I couldn't do worse." Fay smiled, a little bit of relief spread through his face.

"Fay-san, we're almost up." Tomoyo said suddenly. I didn't even notice when she had got there.

"Are we really?" Fay asked as he stood up, "Alright, see you later, Kuro-wan." Fay smiled and then followed Tomoyo down the aisle and through the door that I'm betting lead backstage.

"Ok, next up we have Fay D. Flourite and Tomoyo Arisugawa auditioning with a duet that they composed together." The choral director introduced.

I flanced up and watched as the two of them walked on stage. Fay handed the pianist a few pieces of paper before stepping back beside Tomoyo.

When the piano began playing I found it hard to believe that the song had been composed by a third and a seventh grader. After several seconds of playing, Tomoyo started singing. Fay came in a few beats later, his rich tenor voice complimenting Tomoyo's soprano. They traded off the melody a few times, and when I glanced to the director he looked as though he had just discovered a diamond mine.

He raised his hand and in a swift motion he cut off the piano and the singing.

"That was wonderful!" The director said, clapping his hands together, "Both of you are in. Tell me, did you really compose that on your own?"

"Thank you!" Tomoyo beamed as she looked up to an equally happy Fay. He smiled and motioned for Tomoyo to continue. "It took us almost the whole summer. I wrote the vocals, and Fay-san wrote the piano part."

The director clapped his hands together again, "Wonderful! You must write something for the winter concert."

"I'm glad that you liked it so much." Fay said, "Thank you again."

With that they both left the stage and came back into the auditorium, still beaming. As they reentered the room the director called the next person onto the stage.

"Would...Ashura please come to the stage and sing the song you picked for us?" He asked as Fay and Tomoyo sat down beside me.

"We'll leave after this one," Tomoyo whispered, "We both have heard mixed things about Ashura-sempai, and we want to hear him for ourselves."

A tall upper-classman walked onto the stage. He had long black hair that was pulled back into a low ponytail at the base of his neck, and his skin was a pale shade that rivaled Fay's.

"Wow," Tomoyo breathed, "He's beautiful." Beautiful was an understatement. The guy looked and held himself like a god, but there was something about him that just didn't settle right with me.

When he began to sing I heard Fay's breath hitch in his throat, and when I listened I understood why. He sang like a god too.

"Wow." Fay said quietly when Ashura finished his Audition. Fay shook his head a bit before getting up and leaving the auditorium.

I glanced toward Tomoyo and we both rose and followed him outside. Once we were out of the school he turned to us with a huge grin on his face, "Ashura-sempai is so cool!" He said before looking toward Tomoyo, "I can't believe that we get to sing with him!"

"Me either, he was really wonderful." Tomoyo returned with a smile. When Fay began walking again, we followed, listening to him go on about Ashura's voice and how lucky they were that they would be able to get to know him better.

Tomoyo glanced at me from the side and her eyes told me that she had the same bad feeling about Ashura as I did.

---

Two weeks later I still hadn't managed to get rid of the bad vibe I got from this guy. That afternoon in detention I decided to take some action.

Yuko hadn't arrived in the room yet, so I turned to Watanuki, "Do me a favor." I said, causing the boy to jump, "I swear that I'll take any blame you get for doing it."

"Um, sure, Kurogane-kun...What do you need me to do?" Watanuki asked cautiously.

"I need you to go to the office and find this guy's files and bring hem to me." I explained as I wrote Ashura's name down on a piece of paper and handed it to Watanuki.

"What?! Why me?! I could get into so much trouble if I got caught!" Watanuki responded.

"It has to be you. Yuko is your guardian, so you can lurk around in the office without being suspicious." I explained, "And, I just said that I'll take all the blame if you get caught."

Watanuki glanced down at the paper again, "You owe me," He sighed and then left the room.

About ten minutes later Watanuki returned with a folder with Ashura's name written on the tab.

"Thanks." I said, "I'll figure out some way to repay you."

I took the folder and began to search through it quickly. Ashura transferred into the school last year, and was already captain of the varsity fencing and tennis teams. The only weird thing about him was that he lived alone.

"Did you find out anything good, Kurogane?"

"Nothing rea--" I paused and realized that the voice that just spoke definitely didn't belong to Watanuki. I glanced up and saw the face of the headmistress staring back at me. I awkwardly shut the folder and handed it to her.

"Two months." She said, "You're lucky I don't suspend you for looking at someone else's records."

I merely nodded and slumped down into my seat.

---

Fay was waiting for me after detention like he usually did, I think he had his art club today.

"Why the long face, Kuro-chan?" Fay asked, "You look like Yuko-sensei just assigned you another week of detention."

"Try two months." I mumbled.

"Two months? Why?" Fay asked, glancing at me.

I didn't want to lie to Fay because he'd be able to figure out I was lying, but the truth would just hurt him.

"Look, I think you should stay away from this Ashura guy. I get this bad feeling from him and--"

"What does Ashura have to do with why you got two months of detention?" Fay snapped, surprising me a bit.

"Everything!" I shot back, "I told you I don't feel right about him, so I got a hold of his records and I--" I stopped when I realized I had just given myself away.

"You did what?" Fay asked in disbelief, "You know, I'm allowed to have more than one friend, Kuro-sama!"

"That's not what this is about! This is about you! I don't want something to happen to you! I'm just--"

"There are more important things for you to worry about than me." Fay said, his voice was cold and his eyes were looking down the hall instead of at me, "I can't be your friend anymore if you're going to act like this." He glanced at me, looking like he was about to cry, "I...I have to go." He said. With that, he took off down the hallway.

I looked after him when what had just happened finally settled in. I shouted and punched a nearby locker, and I then ran in the direction opposite from where Fay ran.

I kept running. I ran straight into what I could already tell would be the worst time of my life.

---------------------------------

So yeah, that whole bit at the end, with the records in the fight? Totally just made that up today. I hope my awkward last minute change to this chapter fit well, and that you liked it!

This chapter was one of the hardest to write, not because it was difficult, but because I spent the past week living inside of an oven. It's been SO hot out. I forced myself to go to my friend's houses and go swimming, and then succeeded in getting the world's most obnoxious sunburn on my back and shoulders. And then when I tried to write at night, I couldn't because the paper stuck to me, and I couldn't lay down because I had a sunburn. I had to sleep like Fay. XD

Also, it was Yuko and Ashura! SURPRISE! A lot of you guessed Yuko, and several others that would actually be pretty cool to have in here, but I didn't have anyone guess Ashura. (btw, in my notebook I had him as captain of the football and baseball teams, but I can't picture him playing those...)

Anyway, next chapter! You can expect the triumphant return of Souma! Yayyyy! Also, there will be more of Syaoran! Yayyyyy!

But, will the conflict be resolved?? Dundundun! Tune in next week to find out! ( XP )

Thanks for reading!


	9. Middle School 3

Ok, you all probably find it obnoxious that I put notes at the beginning AND end of a chapter, but this time it's important, so please read. There's an insult used in this that I'm afraid some of you may take offense at, and all I ask is that if you are offended contact me, and speak to me about it. I just wanted to get that out there right off the bat. -nod- I just hope I haven't scared anyone away by now. Haha.

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I never really talked to Fay, but the fact that he was no longer talking to me was more annoying than I thought it would be. I didn't really know why Fay had gotten so upset about what had happened, but I figured that I'd give him a few days to cool off a bit.

After almost two weeks it became clear that he wasn't going to talk to me anytime soon, so I decided to settle into a Fay-less life. It wasn't too long after that that people started to notice we weren't speaking.

"Kurogane-san." Syaoran had said to me as we sparred at our martial arts class, "Is everything alright between you and Fay-san?"

I scowled and didn't answer, but the boy boldly continued.

"Well, I think you should try talking to him. He seems a bit...lost." Syaoran paused to try and kick me, but I blocked and knocked him to the mat easily. "He spends a lot of time with that upperclassman and Chii...and, I guess he looks happy enough, but I think he misses you."

I grabbed Syaoran's hand and pulled him to his feet. The boy looked at me expectantly but I just walked away. If Fay missed me that much then he could come and talk to me.

He never did.

Apparently seventh grade is the time of everyone's lives where you start acting like an idiot. Well, I didn't lump myself into that group, and not very many of the people that I half-talked to fell into that category either. Excluding Watanuki, because I'd known him for two years, and he was always a bit of a loud moron.

But, his type of idiot wasn't even the same type of idiot that the rest of the class became. All of the girls became very cliquey and boy-obsessed. I turned down at least five different girls in the time that Fay wasn't talking to me. And, the boys did almost the same thing, only they obsessed over the girls and were more obnoxious.

This one group of boys kept giving me trouble, asking me to join their gang or something. I looked at the "gang's" self-proclaimed lead, a short pudgy boy with a pink mohawk and said, "From the looks of you, the only thing you'll be ganging up on is a bag of chips."

He tried to punch me fore that. I caught his fist, pushed him to the ground, and walked away only to round the corner and get another week tacked onto me two months of detention for initiating a fight from Yuko. Honestly, that woman's sole purpose in life was to make me miserable.

"Hey, you'll never know what life changes will be brought about from you hanging around in detention." Yuko would say with an annoyingly eerie smile on her face.

I didn't need or want any of the changes detention gave to me. Fay ignoring me completely, Arashi and Sorata being worried about the apparent trouble I was getting into at school, and Tomoyo being worried about me in general were not changes I really enjoyed having to deal with.

And so, everyday repeated the same monotonous routine of home, to school, to detention, to home. Before I knew it, it was December, it was the last day before Christmas vacation, and I was stuck in my last day of detention staring outside at the light flurry of snow coating the amount that we already had.

Most kids had already gone home, except for those that stayed for clubs, and pink mohawk's gang, who were throwing snowballs at a tree in the courtyard.

"I don't get why they just don't go home." Watanuki said from his usual seat next to me, "I mean, I would if I could."

"Same here." I mumbled, still staring out the window.

Fay and Chii were outside now as well. My gaze drifted to the two of them. Fay was holding a trash bag with something rectangular wrapped safely inside it. Chii handed Fay a small neatly wrapped present before bowing and quickly running out of the courtyard.

"She was probably embarrassed to be giving Fay-kun a Christmas present." Watanuki said with a small smile on his face.

"Like you were with Kunogi-san this morning." I caught myself muttering.

"What?"

"I was just wondering where Yuko-sensei is."

"Oh, I don't know. She's always late for everything." Watanuki mumbled as he went back to reading the book he had brought with him today.

I sighed and looked back out to the courtyard. Fay was heading across it no, his eyes were focused on the ground as he walked, which was probably why he was startled into falling backward when a snowball hit him square in the face.

I stood up quickly and looked out the window. Pinky's gang stood a few feet from Fay holding a few more awkwardly shaped snowballs, and from the looks of it, they were all holding more inside of their jackets.

Fay's hands were over his face as he sat up hunched over in the snow, almost oblivious to the taunts that were being thrown at him.

Fay removed one hand from his face and picked up the snowball that had just been thrown at him and he said something to the gang.

I frowned and opened up the window to hear what was going on, ignoring the chilling breeze that came in.

When I noticed that Fay was still holding one hand on his face I frowned, "It was just a snow--"

Fay was holding the snowball, the exact one that had hit him in the face, the exact one that should have broken into bits upon hitting him.

"Ice?!" I hissed as I gripped the counter by the window, "They threw _ice_ at hime?!"

"What?" Watanuki asked, screeching his chair in his hurry to get to the window.

"What's the matter? Aren't you man enough to fight back in a snowball fight?" The mohawk kid said as he hurled another ball at Fay.

"Get out of the way!" I growled quietly.

Fay quickly rolled to the side, avoiding the hunk of ice. He then removed his hand from his face to push himself to his feet, revealing that half of his face was covered in blood.

"Oh, that's right; you're not a man at all, are you? You're just a prissy little gay boy, aren't you?" The gang leader said as they threw another ball, hitting Fay's arm.

Fay winced and gripped the spot that had been hit with his free hand.

"What's in that bag there? And the box? Are they gifts for your boyfriend?" The gang chuckled.

Before I had even seen it, Fay had found a good sized stick and threw it at pinky, hitting him with a thwap against his stomach, "At least I don't have pink hair."

The kid narrowed his eyes and snatched up an ice ball from his gang members. "You'll pay for that." He muttered.

Fay just stood stock still, a stunned look on his bloodied face as if he couldn't believe what he had just done.

"Move!" I said, glaring down at Fay, "Damn it, move!" I shouted, sticking my head out the window.

Fay glanced around, as if trying to figure out where I was before he took my advice and ran.

"I'm going to help him." I said. I ran to the blackboard and grabbed the teacher's pointer from it, "Tell the witch that I have more important things to do."

I barely heard Watanuki's "O-ok." as I sprinted out into the hallway and down it, taking the first staircase I saw. I pretty much jumped down all the stairs and I didn't stop running until I was outside.

"Where...?!" I breathed as I frantically turned my head looking for them. I turned around just in time to see Fay round a corner and reenter the courtyard.

"Get down!"

Fay obeyed almost immediately, and it was a good thing too, because the ball that hit me would have hit the back of his head, and a concussion was the last thing I needed to deal with right now.

I gripped me chest where the ice had hit, "Those things friggin' hurt." I muttered.

Just then the mohawk gang came around the corner and stopped suddenly when they realized that Fay was no longer alone.

"What are you doing here?" The pink haired moron demanded, pointing a quivering finger at me.

"Well, what, the seven of you against one guy doesn't seem like a very fair match. I thought I'd even things out a bit." I said with a grin as I held the pointer up like a sword. It was a lot flimsier than the wooden swords we used in Souma's class, but hopefully it would hold up nicely.

"This isn't your fight, leave now before we hurt you."

"This wasn't his fight either; you just pulled him into it." I said. Speaking of Fay, I grabbed the back of his wet shirt and pulled him to his feet.

"That's it; throw what we have left at the both of them!"

With their leader's command, the gang members produced several ice balls.

"There can't be much more after this." I muttered as the balls were thrown. I smirked as they sped forward. With a quick jump and strike the ice shattered into little shards, along with the pointer. "Tch." At least it had served its purpose.

Fay moved from his spot beside me and snatched a few of the shards before they hit the ground. In another swift movement the shards were flung back from where they came. They shot through Pinky's mohawk and eventually collided with the wall behind him.

Pinky blinked a little before turning toward his gang, "L-let's get out of here."

"Not so fast. I think you all have a bit of explaining to do." None other than Yuko Ichihara stood in one of the doorways that lead outside. "Kurogane, take Fay to the nurse. You will not be punished for self defense. These young boys, however, will be lucky if they're allowed back into the school once the board is done with them."

I glanced toward Fay, his face was covered in blood, and he looked like he was going to collapse, but he refused help, picked up his bag and box, and walked ahead of me and past Yuko inside. As I walked by her she said, "It's a good thing you were in detention, wasn't it?" She chuckled and then made her way out to the delinquents.

The only reason I caught up with Fay was because he was leaning against the wall with his hands on his face again.

"Go away, I'm fine." Fay said.

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am." Fay insisted as he shakily continued inch by inch down the hall. When he fell, I quickly caught his wrist, stopping him before he hit the floor.

"No, you're not." I said again as I pulled his arm around my shoulders, "Just let me get you to the nurse, and then you can go back to hating me."

"I don't hate you!" Fay said, sounding a little hurt, well, emotionally that is.

"That's news to me." I retorted.

"I didn't talk to you for your own good! You worried too much about me, and even now, you're still worrying about me." Fay said, "I'm not someone worth worrying about..." He paused before looking up to me with a bit of a grin on his face, "What do I need to do to get you to go away?"

"You can't do anything. You're too stupid and accident prone for me not to worry about you." I muttered. Did Fay really think that low of himself?

"I guess that I'm stuck with you then." Fay laughed as we entered the nurses office.

"Goodness, Ichihara-san told me there was a fight, but this is worse than I thought."

"I think I just hit my nose right enough to bleed, it's probably not that bad." Fay grinned.

"Well, of course, but the blood loss is sure to make you dizzy, I'm surprised that you didn't pass out." The nurse cleaned Fay's face with a hot cloth and gave him a change of clothes; his were soaked through.

"You can change in the bathroom." The nurse said, "You're free to go after that." She then retreated into a side office.

Fay nodded and got changed quickly. When he returned he looked a lot better than he had before. He picked up the box Chii had given him and then the rectangular trash bag. "I hope it's not ruined...Would you still keep it anyway?" He asked as he handed me the bag.

"What?"

"It's yours; it took me almost three months to do." Fay smiled, "We had to paint a picture of a person for art club, and I chose you, only you didn't know. Open it!"

I pulled back the trash bag and revealed a black and white painting of the school from the courtyard. In one of the windows was a silhouette of me.

"It's a good thing you had detention everyday or I would have never got it done."

"Why didn't you do Ashura?" I found myself asking.

"Because you're my friend, Kuro-chan!"

I stared at Fay and the stupid grin on his face and left the room with a sigh.

"Wait up, Kuro-pon! I'm still kind of dizzy, and would rather not fall over." Fay said running to catch up to me. He tripped over his feet and grabbed my arm to keep from falling. He smiled slightly and continued to hold it and he rested his head on my shoulder while we walked.

"I'm going to come over your house right now and hang that up for you." Fay declared.

"Why? You should go home and rest."

"Nah." Fay laughed, "Besides, I need to make sure that this doesn't end up under your pillow like the other one."

-----------------------------------

"'You're just a prissy little gay boy, aren't you?'"

For those of you who had no idea what I was talking about, this was what I was worried about. I know people, a few of them close friends of mine, that get very offended when gay is used as an insult. So, again, if you are offended, please contact me via a PM and we can discuss it.

Also, yes it is possible to create ice balls. It happens very rarely. If you get a snow storm, and then the temperatures drop low enough, the snow can freeze, and you get a sheet of ice instead of snow, and you can chisel out blocks or balls of ice. It's wicked cool, haha. Except for when you are on the receiving end of said ice ball throwings...

I don't really have much else to say on this chapter, and the next chapter got screwed up in my mind, so I can't even tell you what's going to happen next...--

Haha, thank you for reading!


	10. High School 1

Is it sad that the only reason I picked up my notebook was because I was ill? I've been way busy, but now I have nothing to do because I'm lying in bed with a dehydration/heat/lack of food headache. I was going to wait before I started this section of the story; I wanted to see more about Ashura from the spoilers online. But, I haven't updated for you people in more than a month, and spoiler readers know that there won't be another update for two more weeks.

ALSO! If you don't read the spoilers, and you read this fic, please let me know in a review or a PM. This story can roll with or without them, so if I have a reader who doesn't read the spoilers, I'll be happy to go with the original plotline instead of the spoiler plotline. (I'd rather not spoil anybody, you know?) Anyway, on to the chapter!

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"It's hard to believe that you're moving out, Kurogane." Sorata said as he and I carried the last box into my dorm room. I had decided at the end of last year that I was going to take advantage of the dorms at the school.

"It'll be good for you to be out on your own for a while, Kurogane." Tomoyo had said when I ran the idea by her. With her approval I got a summer job working with Souma at the martial arts school to pay for the dorm, and I told Sorata and Arashi what I was planning.

I got them to agree, and now that I was all moved in, I was having second thoughts. The school wasn't far from the Arisugawa's apartment, but living on my own was going to be strange.

"Alright, Kurogane, we'll leave the rest of your unpacking to you." Sorata said, ruffling my hair. I glowered at him, but I soon found myself wrapped in a surprisingly tight hug from Arashi.

"We'll call you tomorrow, ok?" She said, stepping back beside Sorata.

"Yeah, ok." I said, though I did give her a little bit of a smile. His guardians took a step back to allow Tomoyo to say goodbye.

"Things will be different without you at home, Kurogane, and although it pains me greatly, I will see you off." Tomoyo said dramatically, "Though, I suppose I will still see you around campus."

"Yeah."

Tomoyo laughed and stepped into the hallway to join her parents. "See you soon, Kurogane." She waved and the three walked away. I watched until they had gone around the corner, and then I reentered my room. I glanced at the few boxes that were scattered across the floor.

"I guess I should unpack." I muttered to myself.

"Yeah, you probably should." A voice replied.

I jumped a little in surprise and turned around quickly to face the intruder, only to find Fay grinning up at me.

"Hyuu! So, Kuro-sama does get scared!" Fay teased from the doorway, "And, he got taller since I saw him last." He said, reaching up and patting the top of my head like I was his pet or something.

"No, you're just short." I muttered. I went to shut the door, giving Fay just enough time to slip inside before the door fell into place.

"How was your summer?" Fay asked as I went to unpack, "I didn't see you a lot, sorry about that."

"I thought you died when you stopped calling me everyday." I said, half serious.

"Yeah, well, Ashura complained about me running up his phone bill."

"Why were you using his phone?" I asked, peering over my shoulder to look at Fay. The blond looked as though he'd just let loose a government secret.

"Ah, well..." Fay paused, "I ran away from home Kuro-rin." He finally said.

"You just left?"

"Mhm, I didn't even take anything with me, well, I took money, but other than that, everything of mine is still at home. I suppose I'll have to go back eventually to get it..." Fay mumbled, his eyes looking somewhere far away.

"How long?" I asked, fully focused on Fay now.

"Since the end of last year. I would have gone to your place, Kuro-tan, but my dad would have looked there, and I didn't want to burden Arashi-san and Sorata-san." Fay explained, "Ashura lives alone, and he said that he didn't mind."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why'd you run away?" I asked, irritated. One didn't just run away from home for several months without a good reason.

"Not today, Kuro-pon." Fay replied, a stern look in his eyes that made it hard for me to say, "Yes, today. I've got enough of your damn mysteries to deal with, and you're going to explain this one. Why did you run?"

Fay looked a bit shocked that I asked again, "I guess you should know." He almost whispered, "But, you can't tell anyone. Ashura doesn't know either. So, promise that you won't tell." Fay said, holding out his hand.

"I promise." I said, shaking his hand.

Fay shut his eyes for a moment; I waited patiently. Slowly, Fay began to take off his long-sleeved shirt. I stared at him curiously, but when his shirt was off, I knew why he had taken it off. His arms and torso were covered with faded scars and bruises.

"This one," He said, pointed to a particularly nasty scar in his side, "Was the reason I left. My dad threw a knife at me."

I stared at Fay as anger began rising through my system.

"I could deal with him hitting me, but weapons are dangerous, so--"

"Your father hitting you is dangerous too! You could have been killed!" I shouted. I was angry at Fay for not telling me about this sooner, but I was angrier with myself for not seeing it before.

_"I fell down the stairs." "I just tripped over a rock on the way to school." "It's no big deal." "I'm not worth worrying about, Kuro-sama."_

"Kuro--"

"Why didn't you tell me before?!" I asked, "I could've helped! You need to tell Yuko about this," I said. I hated the bitch, but she knew what she was doing, and would probably be able to help, "Come on, let's--"

I had just gotten to the door when I felt Fay slam into me and knock the both of us to the ground.

"No!" Fay shouted, placing his hands on my arms, successfully pinning me to the ground, "You promised! You can't tell! Besides, I'm not living there anymore, so it doesn't matter!" I could see the fear that shook his body in his eyes, "I handled it, ok? You can't tell!"

"...Fine." I reluctantly agreed. Fay wasn't in that environment anymore, and that was what really mattered.

Fay let out a sigh of relief. He rolled off of me and he sat on the floor. I sat up next to him, and we stayed like that for a few minutes.

"Kuro-chan?"

"Yeah?"

"Ashura is dorming here this year."

"So?" I asked, glancing toward Fay.

"Well, he's in the upperclassmen dorms, and freshmen aren't allowed to stay there, so I was wondering if I could stay with you?" Fay asked timidly, "I have money; I can pay for half the room."

"Why not get a dorm yourself?" I asked.

"Minors need a parental signature on the forms." Fay explained with a weak laugh.

I sighed, "So, you're asking me to harbor you like a fugitive in my room?"

"Yes." Fay laughed this time.

I stood up and threw Fay's shirt at him. He said, "Thanks," And pulled the shirt on over his head.

"I'll try to find a mattress for you before the week is up." I muttered, "Help me unpack."

I heard Fay gasp, and he wrapped his arms around me in a hug tighter than the one Arashi had given me earlier.

"Thank you so much, Kuro-sama!"

I made an annoyed noise and shoved Fay off of me. "Whatever."

Fay grinned and squatted down beside on of the boxes. He opened it up and pulled a yellowed piece of paper out. He unfolded it and let out a laugh.

"Hyuu! I found out all in one day that Kuro-pon can be scared, and that he's sentimental!" Fay said, grinning as he folded the piece of paper back up and walked over to my bed. "I know right where this one goes." Fay carefully slipped the paper under the pillow.

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Short, I know, I'm sorry.

I actually had a good time writing this chapter. However, the whole Fay confessing thing definitely wasn't supposed to happen here. ;;; It just kind of worked. -nodnod-

Also, this isn't the last we'll hear from Fay's dad.

PS-I loved Tomoyo in this one, bwahaha.

Thanks for reading, and waiting for this chapter!

NEXT CHAPTER!

GASPZORZ! It's the end of Fay and Kuro's freshman year, and Ashura's last year at the same school! What will happen?!?!?! Stay tuned!


	11. High School 2

100 REVIEWS! -glomps you all-

Thank you so much for reading my fic!! Congrats to Phiso for numbah 100!

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Rooming with Fay was a lot easier than I had expected. For some reason I thought that he would have all sorts of weird habits, but the only one I noticed was that he took walks around the campus before going to sleep.

"It helps clear my head." He said. Occasionally I would go with him, but usually he went by himself. I guess it was like his own personal Fay-time.

We only had two problems with the rooming situation throughout the whole year.

The first problem was trying to find Fay a mattress. It took almost two weeks to get a hold of one. During those first two weeks, Fay and I switched off sleeping in the bed. However, on the nights where I slept in the bed, I usually woke up in the middle of the night to find Fay sneaking into the bed with me. I didn't really care much. Floors were uncomfortable; so, I ignored him and would fall back asleep.

What I didn't like, however, was how I would always wake up with him curled up next to me, his face buried in my chest. It felt too...okay. I didn't like it, so, I would shove him off the bed and say, "You could try and put a little more effort into finding your own mattress."

Fay would just laugh.

Eventually I ended up taking a knife from the cafeteria and slashing a hole in my mattress so that I could report it to the office as damaged, and they got me another one.

"Take that one to your room, and the torn one to the dumpster outside." Yuko had said, "Unless you want someone to come and pick up the old mattress for you..." She added, looking at me with that eerie, all-knowing grin of hers.

"I'll do it myself."

So, I dragged the mattress back and set it up on the floor for Fay.

"Now you can sleep in your own damn bed." I muttered.

I could have sworn that Fay looked disappointed for just a moment before he grinned and said, "You're too good for me."

The next day Tomoyo came over after class to repair the tear I had made in my own mattress.

"Fay-san is living with you?" Tomoyo asked, curiously, glancing toward the blond. He had headphones on and was doing some of his homework.

"Yeah." I replied.

"I hope that you take good care of him." Tomoyo said, not bothering to ask about why he was living with me.

I scowled and Tomoyo laughed as she cut off the thread, "I'll leave you two alone then." Tomoyo gave me a pat on my arm and left the room.

The second problem was much more complicated than getting a hold of a mattress.

It happened around two in the morning; Yuko came shouting down the hall, banging on all of the doors.

"Everybody up!" She called, "One of the upperclassmen was found with illegal substances on campus, and so we're having a surprise room inspection! Everyone into the hall."

I rolled groggily out of bed and into the hallway. I figured I'd just let Fay sleep...that was until the witch laid down the ground rules.

"I am, along with my associate," She pointed at a tall man with long black hair, pulled into a ponytail at the base of his head, and glasses, "Looking for anything out of the ordinary." She said, "By which I mean anything ranging from drugs, to alcohol to...guests who aren't signed in." I felt as though she made it a point to look at me when she said that.

It was then that I realized that I could get in major trouble for keeping Fay in my room. I visibly tensed, and Yuko pointer her finger at me.

"Kurogane! You have 30 seconds to make the room decent!"

With out another word I stepped back into the room.

"Hey!" I hissed, shaking Fay awake, "We've got a problem, you've got to hide."

Fay made some sort of mumbled noise as I frantically glanced around the room, looking for a spot to hide the blond. The only place that could even hope to hide him was the closet. I pushed him inside. "Stay there...try and keep yourself hidden."

Fay gave me a tired thumbs up, and I quickly shut the closet door. I then practically leapt to Fay's mattress and had just finished throwing his blankets onto my bed and shoving the mattress underneath it when the door was flung open.

"Let the search begin!" Yuko cried. She was far too energetic for two in the morning. She told the bespectacled man to start on the room across the hall, Touya and Yukito's room, and she then set about her search of my room. She rummaged through every drawer possible, and checked behind everything. She bent over and looked under the bed, "An extra mattress?" She asked.

"My old one from the beginning of the year. I haven't had time to throw it out yet." I covered smoothly.

She nodded and made her way to my closet. I bit my lip as she opened it, only to see that Fay wasn't in there. I blinked, but said nothing.

"Everything seems to be in good order." Yuko said with a pleased grin on her face, "Good job." She said before she left the room, shutting the door behind her.

When I was sure she was gone, I peered into the closet, "You in here...?" I asked.

I heard a muffled sound coming from behind the coat that hung on the door. I went to lift the coat up, but it somehow gained an extra 100 pounds.

I scowled and lifted the coat, prepared for the extra weight this time, and turned it to see Fay grinning at me from inside the coat.

"Did we fool her?" He asked as I let him drop to the floor. I nodded as he wriggled out of the coat, leaving it on the floor. I decided to make him pick it up in the morning, and I went to pull Fay's mattress out from under my bed. I had barely moved it when I heard Fay fall onto my bed.

"Hey, sleep in your own bed." I grumbled. I waited for a response, but none came. He was already asleep. I sighed and lay down beside him on the small bed. He automatically cuddled into me when I laid down. I hesitated before wrapping my arms around him, and burying my face in his vanilla-scented hair.

I could always blame that on lack of sleep.

Other than that, nothing too eventful had happened as we approached the end of the year. All major vacations were behind us. Fay spent both spring and winter break with me and my family; I don't know how we pulled that off with Sorata and Arashi...I think we told them that Fay's father was traveling on business.

The only big event left for the school was the last day for senior students. They all got out a month before us. It really was a school-wide event because the seniors usually walked into the building shouting and screaming, and the whole school would get riled up.

The only one, other than myself, and maybe Doumeki, it was always hard to tell with him, who didn't seem excited was Fay.

Fay had this incredibly fake smile on his face all day, and would cheer with the other students whenever a senior who was cutting class walked by the classrooms shouting, but Fay just seemed off

When we got back to my dorm I confronted him about it.

"What's eating you?" I asked. I sat down on my bed and looked toward Fay.

He grinned up at me, "Nothing, I'm fine." He said, "See?" He pointed to his grin.

"Just because you're smiling doesn't mean you're happy."

"Well, just because you scowl all the time doesn't mean you're always angry." Fay countered.

I glared at the blond, who just laughed. "We were talking about you." I reminded.

"Well, if you must know, I'm a little sad that I probably won't get to see Ashura gain after today." Fay said, turning to look out the window, "It's just going to be weird to not have my first real...father-type person around anymore."

I glanced out the window for a minute too, "Have you said goodbye to him yet?" I asked. Ashura graduated today, and Kurogane felt a little bad for Fay.

"...No."

"Are you going to?"

"It'll be hard." Fay said, looking at me now. "Besides, he has the graduation ceremony right now, and you know that they all go out partying afterward." Fay said, "I'll catch him tomorrow when he's cleaning out his dorm."

I nodded, glad that Fay was at least planning on saying goodbye to his friend, even if I didn't like him all that much. After that, I let the subject drop and decided to do my homework.

Around 6:30 Fay got up from his mattress, "I'm going down to dinner, do you want anything?"

"Nah." I responded. I tapped my pen against my chin lightly as I stared at the problem in the book I was working on.

Fay watched me curiously and then came over to take a look at the problem himself. His eyes had barely glanced at the paper when he said, "26." He patted me on the head and left the room before I could yell at him. Even with the answer it still took me at least 15 minutes to figure it out, and another hour to finish the rest of the work.

I glanced at the clock. Fay had been gone a long time for just going down to dinner...then again, it was also about the time that he went for his walks too. It wasn't until 9:00 that I really started to get worried. The sun had set an hour ago, and Fay still hadn't returned.

I rose from where I had been laying anxiously on my bed and stomped out of the room. I decided to trace the steps Fay would have taken if he had gone on his walk. When I reached the back of the school I paused and glanced toward the woods.

I could hear the seniors out there celebrating; all of the teachers turned a blind eye toward it, despite the illegal drinking that was probably going on. I kicked absently at the ground and continued along my way.

When I rounded the corner I saw two silhouettes pressed up against the wall further down. I took a guess at their activities and decided to turn around and look for Fay elsewhere. I had taken a few steps away when the voices of the people behind me began to echo around me.

"A-Ashura...stop. Please, I don't--"

"Well, I do. I've waited for years to be able to be with you like this, but you just push me away. Not tonight though."

A couple of muffled noises occurred after that, but I didn't need anymore convincing to turn back around. I reached the two in seconds.

I grabbed the back of Ashura's shirt and I threw him around Fay and into the wall face first. I held his arms tight behind him and kept him pinned to the wall. He smelled of beer; he'd probably been out with the other seniors for the better half of the evening.

"Bastard." I said, shoving him harder into the wall. He winced, but didn't say anything. It was then that I remembered that Fay was standing beside us. I glanced over to him.

Fay's face was flushed, and his hair was a mess. The buttons on his shirt were all undone, exposing his chest. Ashura had been doing a good job of getting Fay's pants undone too. Fay was shaking, and there were tears in his eyes.

I growled and pulled Ashura off of the wall and threw him to the ground.

"Fucking bastard." I spat, placing a heavy foot on Ashura's back, "Listen the next time someone tells you to stop." I growled as I pressed my foot harder into Ashura's back until he shouted from pain.

I then turned to Fay, who still hadn't moved, "Get dressed."

With shaking hands and as if he didn't have a mind of his own he followed my orders.

I walked over to him, "Come on," I said, "Let's go."

Fay glanced toward Ashura, who was still lying in pain in the dirt, before he let out a chocked sob and threw his arms around me.

Instinctively I wrapped my arms around his shaking frame and held him close. We stood like that for a long time. I would occasionally glance back at Ashura as if I was making sure he was still there. Ashura, however, had apparently passed out. I assumed that it was from the alcohol in his system because I hadn't beaten him up that bad.

When the mosquitoes began to get annoying I said, "Let's go back to the room."

Fay only gripped the back of my shirt tighter and somehow he managed to press himself closer to me.

I sighed quietly and lifted the blond off the ground and cradled him in my arms. He kept his face buried in my chest as I walked the both of us back to our room. I didn't bother with Ashura. He'd wake up eventually, and wasn't worth my time.

When we got back to the room I pried Fay off of me and sat him down on my bed. My shirt was soaked from Fay's crying. I looked at Fay, who sniffed and rubbed at his eyes, trying to make himself stop crying.

"Are you alright?" I muttered, knowing the question was a stupid one.

"I...I don't know." Fay said, continuing to rub at his eyes.

"I'll be right back." I said with the intention of walking across the hall to ask Touya and Yukito if they had a box of tissues.

"No!" Fay said, looking at me in horror, "Don't leave. Please don't leave."

Fay looked so pitiful in that moment that I practically froze where I was.

"I don't want to be alone." Fay said, his shaky hands playing with the edge of the blanket on my bed.

I watched him in silence for a minute before I sat down on the end of my bed. I stared at the wall as I spoke, "What did he do to you?"

"Nothing." Fay responded after a moment, "You came by before he got too far."

"Why didn't you try to stop him?" I asked, turning to look at Fay, who was looking at the floor. When he didn't answer I said, "You could have at least pushed him away. I know you could have. Why didn't you?" Fay was a lot stronger than he let on, and yet he didn't do anything to try and defend himself.

"I couldn't."

"What do you mean you couldn't? Of course--"

"No. I could have, but I couldn't." Fay said. He looked at me before looking back at the floor and elaborating. "Ashura was always good to me...he never questioned me...he gave me a home...He was a lot like you in that way." Fay paused, "But, Ashura, to me, acted like how a father should act...And, I loved him that way. But, he loved me differently. He told me he did at the beginning of the year...I couldn't accept his feelings, and he seemed ok with it...until tonight anyway." Fay wiped at his eyes. It was hard to imagine he'd been crying for as long as he had been.

"Because I knew how he felt about me, and because he had given me the fatherly like figure I never had, I couldn't push him away. I thought that since I'd probably never see him after tonight, I could at least give him what he wanted from me..."

"So, even though you asked him to stop, you were just going to let him do whatever he wanted with you?" I growled.

"Yes."

"Are you stupid?! It could have gone a lot further than it did!" I said, glaring at Fay, who pointedly kept looking at the floor.

"Yes, but you showed up."

"What if I hadn't?!" I asked, ""You would have just stood there and let him practically rape you, wouldn't you?

Fay tensed lightly as I brought the reality of what could have happened to the surface.

"I'm sorry..." Fay mumbled.

"What the hell are you apologizing for?"

"I'm always causing you trouble." He said.

"No." I responded, "What were you doing out that late anyway?"

"9:30 isn't later, Kuro-sama." Fay laughed. He seemed to be relaxing a bit, "But, after dinner I went to the art room to try and finish up a project...Before I knew it the sun had set, so I decided I'd go for my walk. I met up with Ashura around the back of the school; I guess he had enough of the seniors. You can probably piece together the rest." Fay had begun playing with the edge of the blanket again. "Thank you." Fay said, "For always helping me...I'm such a pain."

"No." I said. I opened my closet and pulled out one of my shirts and shorts for Fay to wear as pajamas. The only clothing he had brought with him when he asked to move in was his school uniform, so we shared a lot of clothes, even if mine were several sizes too big.

After tossing those at Fay I grabbed some for myself and got changed; Fay did the same.

"It's late." I said. It was almost midnight. "We should try and get some sleep." I walked around to the side of my bed and I laid down on it.

I heard Fay shifting behind me before he, too, climbed into my bed. He curled up next to me.

"You've got your own damn bed you know."

"I know. But, I don't want to be alone..."

---

The next morning I woke up to a sharp knock on the door.

"Don't bother hiding him, Kurogane. He's allowed to be there." Yuko's voice called out to me.

I opened my eyes slowly and I found myself staring at Fay's sleeping face. I crawled out of bed, careful not to wake him.

"What do you mean?" I muttered as I opened the door. Even at the going-to-be-over-six-feet height that I was, Yuko still towered over me.

"This letter arrived on my desk this morning with instructions to deliver it to Fay, who would be residing in your room." She handed me the letter and then produced a few sheets of paper, "Along with that came the signed permission slips that allow a student to live in one of the dorms here."

"Who signed them...?" I questioned.

"18 year old Ashura." Yuko replied, "His birthday was last month, and 18 years old is considered to be an adult. And, because Fay lived with Ashura for more than 2 months, in my book he counts as some sort of guardian."

I stared at Yuko, still confused by what she had said.

"In other words, Ashura just saved you and Fay's butts from ever being expelled if you got caught."

I nodded a bit. I guess Ashura wasn't always as bad as I made him out to be.

"What time is it?" I muttered to the headmistress.

"About 6:30."

I slammed the door in her face and went back over to the bed.

Fay's face was now buried in the pillows and he was lying on his stomach. I smiled slightly and laid back down beside Fay.

Just when I was about to fall asleep, Fay laughed, "Hyuu! Even if Kuro-tan has another option for a bed, he still comes back to sleep with me!"

I growled and pulled out the pillow I was using and hit him over the head with it.

"Hey, that wasn't nice..." Fay said as he sat up, "Where's my letter?" He asked. I shoved the letter into his hands.

"So, you were up?"

"Yeah, I couldn't get much sleep last night...you snore too loud."

I threw a second pillow at him, "I don't snore."

"Ashura's a nice guy, hm?" Fay said as he began reading the letter. "I can't blame him for last night...he'd been drinking, and alcohol shows how a person really feels about something. Drunken men tell no lies."

"What's the letter say?" I asked, peering over Fay's shoulder to see it.

"It's an apology." Fay said with a sad smile, "And a goodbye. He's going to college overseas...He gave me his address 'to keep in touch or if you need anything signed again.'" He read from the paper, he was crying again.

"He wrote a message to you too." Fay said, wiping at his eyes before reading, "It says, 'Be the man I'll never be, take care of him.'"

I frowned as I tried to piece together what that meant.

"I guess he's not that bad of a guy." I muttered. Ashura had good intentions...but, I'd never forgive him for what he did to Fay.

"Nope...he usually knows what he's talking about." Fay paused and said, "Now, do as he said and take care of me; I want some breakfast."

I shoved Fay off of my bed and onto the floor, "Get your own damn breakfast." I said as I stood up and walked out of the room.

"Wait for me!" Fay laughed and ran after me.

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That was a good 'un length wise. Makes up for the shoddy chapters I have been doing, haha.

I did this instead of summer homework! I hope ya'll liked it! XD

Um...so, I don't really know what to say about this chapter...Usually, I have a rant to say, but I can honestly say that I don't think I need to rant about this one...Everything worked out well together in my opinion. ;;

NEXT CHAPTER:

T3H PR0MZ?!

Thanks for reading!!


	12. High School 3 T3H PR0MZ

I'm pretty sure I said to some of you that I'd have a chapter out before the beginning of October. Sorry! School takes up more of my time than I thought! Anyway, here it is! The potential third to last chapter in Through the Ages! ( TT )

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"Can you believe it?"

"Believe what?"

"We have less than one month until we are tossed oh-so rudely into the real world!"

I shrugged. Frankly, I couldn't believe that four years had gone by that fast, but they did, and I was now closing my senior year of high school. Fay had spent almost every minute of those four years attached to my hip. I'm pretty sure that the only times I spent away from him were when I was in the bathroom.

I had tried several times in the past few years to get Fay to confront his father, to at least get some of his belongings from his home, but Fay would just say, "There's something else I need to confront first."

Eventually, I stopped asking.

"Are you sticking to your decision about prom?" Fay asked, pulling me out of my reminiscing.

Prom. The big senior dance, the last hurrah, etc, was tonight...and I wasn't going. Several girls had gotten up the nerve to ask me, but I had turned them all down. It's not that I didn't like any of them; it was more that I just didn't want to go with them specifically. I didn't even know who I wanted to go with. So, I decided that I would sit on my bed playing computer games in my pajamas all night.

Sorata had rented me a tuxedo just in case I decided that I wanted to go at the last minute, however.

"Does it look like I'm going?" I growled in response.

Fay laughed from in front of the mirror where he was brushing his hair. "Just because you don't have a date, since you turned down practically every girl in the class, doesn't mean that you can't just come with me and the guys."

"You turned down every girl who asked you too, you know." I pointed out.

"Yes, but that is because I agreed to go with Touya-kun, Yukito-kun, Doumeki-kun and Watanuki-kun as a massive group. You don't need a date, you know." Fay said, turning to look at me now.

"Watanuki isn't going with Kunogi?" I asked, honestly surprised.

"Himawari-chan is vacationing with her parents this week." Fay paused, "Watanuki-kun was depressed for weeks..."

"Poor guy never has any luck with that girl."

"It's a shame...they'd really be cute together. So, anyway, how about it Kuro-chan, are you going to come, or not?" Fay asked.

"No. I don't have a date, and I'm not going with your mob." I replied. I exited out of the game I had been playing so that I could glare at Fay.

Fay shook his head and walked over to our fridge. He grabbed something from inside, hiding it behind his back as he walked over to me. He stood by my bed for a few minutes as though he was trying to make his mind up about something, before he presented me with a boutonnière, one that matched his own.

"Then, how about being my date?" Fay asked.

When I didn't answer, Fay spoke again, "Please, Kuro-sama? I really want you to come...I won't have any fun without you."

After what seemed like hours of silence I snatched the boutonnière from Fay's hands, "Fine." I growled, "I'll go, but I'm sure as hell not staying the whole time."

Fay smiled brightly, "Thank you, Kuro-tan! You're going to have a good night, I know it!"

About 30 minutes later I had gotten changed and was ready to go. Fay pinned the boutonnière to my vest and I pulled on my coat.

"You look so handsome, Kuro-pii. I understand why all those girls were asking you to go with them." Fay laughed. The blond reached up to straighten my tie. His hands lingered on my chest, "Really, Kuro-sama, I'm glad that you're coming with me." Fay rested his forehead between his hands, and for a second I thought he had fallen asleep. But, when someone knocked at the door, Fay sprang to answer.

"Yo, you guys ready?" It was Touya and the other guys.

"Yup! C'mon, Kuro-rin, let's get going!" Fay grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into the hallway. "I'm not letting you go until we're safely in the ballroom. I don't want you to run away from me."

"I'm no--" Fay, however, was now talking jovially to Yukito, rendering my protest useless.

The prom's theme was "A Night in Paris," a typical romantic theme. The school's ballroom was decorated with all sorts of lights and props relating to this theme. The room was already pretty crowded as well. A few couples and circles of friends were out dancing while others sat at tables chatting amiable with their companions.

Their group attracted minimal attention from the prom-goers when they walked in, mainly Kurogane noticed they eyes of the girls he had turned down on him. He allowed Fay to pull him along until they found an empty table. The six of them hung their coats on the backs of chairs, partially to claim the table as their own, but the room was actually pretty hot.

"Watanuki-kun, who is that with Ichihara-sensei?" I heard Yukito ask.

I glanced around until I found the teacher chaperones and saw the tall, bespectacled man that always seemed to be around the school, with Yuko especially.

"Oh, that's Clow Reed-san...Would you stop staring at me like that?!" Watanuki was now glaring at Doumeki.

"You were talking..."

"Whatever, I don't need to hear your lame excuses...Anyway, Reed-san is vice principal in training...let's just say that if Yuko-san is the head, then Reed-san is the neck that moves the head in the direction he wants, most of the time, anyway."

Now that I was looking at this Clow guy, I realized that he was the same guy who was with Yuko during all the room inspections we had late at night...

"Kuro-sama, you should go over and ask that girl to dance." Fay said, pointing to a short, brown-haired girl, who whispered excitedly with her friends when Fay pointed to her.

"I think they'd rather you." I grumbled.

That was how it started. Fay pushed me over to their table and then I was out on the dance floor with the girl; Fay was a few feet away with one of the girl's friends. Over the course of the night Fay made me dance with every girl that had asked me to prom. I didn't mind so much since it seemed to satisfy the girls, who were almost all upset when I had turned them down.

About an hour later I left the dance and made my way outside for some of the fresh air. I found a tree not too far from the dance and leaned on it, staring up through its branches at the sky. I could still hear the slow beat of the song playing inside.

I had just turned around to go back inside, when I found myself staring at Fay, who looked about as surprised as I did to see him there.

"I didn't expect you to turn around." Fay laughed.

"I didn't expect you to be standing here like a creep." I retorted.

"Aw, I'm not a creep. I just came out here to see if...if Kuro-tan would share a dance with me...?" Fay was already wrapping his arms up around my neck and he rested his head on my chest, "Please?"

I grumbled something but I rested my hands on Fay's hips and we moved to the beat of the slow song that was barely audible from where we were standing outside. Fay knew most of the words and sang along quietly. I hadn't heard Fay sing alone in a while; I'd forgotten how pure and strong his voice was when he did. I could tell even now with his voice barely more than a whisper.

"Hey, Kuro-sama?" Fay asked about halfway through the song.

"Yeah?"

"If I did something weird right now, and you thought it was weird, would you forgive me for doing it?"

"What the hell kind of question is that?" I asked.

"Just answer it." Fay responded.

"Well, yeah, I guess so, but--"

My sentence was interrupted by Fay's lips catching my own. My words became muffled in the sudden kiss.

Fay pulled away a short second afterward. His face had more color in it than I had ever seen on the blond's pale skin.

"I'm sorry." Fay said quickly. He turned to leave, but I caught his wrist.

"Don't apologize for such stupid things." I found myself saying.

"What?" Fay had turned to look at me, the blush still on his face.

With that one kiss, so many things became clear to me. All the nicknames, the things that were said, the subtle touches...all of it just clicked now. Fay liked me...no, it was more than that. How much more, I didn't know.

But, what about myself? Did I like Fay? I liked the way his body felt pressed up against mine when he snuck into my bed. I liked the way his hair fell across his face, but never truly covered his eyes. I liked the way his smiles came so naturally, and how his mutilations of my name rolled off his tongue. I couldn't believe I hadn't realized this before. Looking back I realized that even Tomoyo knew of my feelings before I did. I didn't just like Fay, I loved him...everything about him.

"Kuro-sama...your hand..." Fay wasn't looking at me anymore, but at the grass by his feet.

I glanced at my hand, which was still clasped tightly around the blond's thin wrists. In a quick motion I pulled my hand back, taking Fay with it. Fay made a noise of surprise as he found himself falling into me. He looked up at me, questioning.

For an answer I leaned down and kissed him. He seemed shocked at first, but he responded quickly.

I don't know how long we stayed like that, kissing, touching, exploring...but it wasn't long enough when Fay pulled away. His face was red again, and his vest and shirt were both undone; his tie lay forgotten in the grass, and his breath was short. I was sure that I mimicked his appearance.

"The dance lets out soon..." Fay said, glancing toward the doors of the ballroom. Fay didn't want to be seen.

"Do you want to head back?" I asked, picking up Fay's tie off the ground.

"Do you think the others will mind that we left early?"

"We've already been gone for a pretty long time." I pointed out.

"Alright...let's go then." Fay said. He laced his fingers in between mind, and together we walked back to our dorm, stealing kisses along the way.

Once inside the dorm room Fay attached himself to me. I pressed him up against the door and continued to kiss him, trailing along his jaw and down his neck, coming to rest at his collar bone.

"Kuro-chan...?" Fay breathed. I grunted a response, and Fay continued, "Are you serious?"

I lifted my head to look at Fay, "Huh?"

"Are you serious? If you're not, then I'd rather you didn't toy with me like this..." Fay's voice trailed off at the end, afraid of my response.

"You're an idiot." I growled.

"What...?"

"You've always been a moron, but I didn't think you were that dumb." I pulled Fay up against me and began working my fingers through his hair. "I would have let you know if I didn't like you...I wouldn't play with your emotions like that." I said, a little offended that Fay would even consider something so low from me. I gently kissed the top of Fay's head, "I love you."

Fay pushed away from me and stared at me, surprise spread across his face. He made me repeat myself, to the point of annoyance, until he was sure that I was telling the truth. He leaned up to kiss me, "I've always loved you." He whispered in my ear before he rested his forehead against my shoulder.

After several minutes, Fay let out a content sigh and pulled away.

"I'm going to get changed." He announced. He walked over to his dresser and pulled out a pair of pajamas before going into the bathroom. I stood there for a few seconds, confused, but happy. I got changed into my pajamas in the room and climbed into my bed. A few moments later I heard Fay return, and he climbed into bed next to me.

"I'm glad that I confronted this..." I heard Fay whisper into my back as I drifted off to sleep.

---

The next morning I woke up and noticed immediately that Fay wasn't there. I sat up and as my eyes adjusted to the morning light, I noticed a piece of paper tacked to the door with Fay's handwriting.

I stood up, grabbed the paper off the door and read it.

"I have one more thing left to confront."

I reread the paper a few times until it finally made sense.

"Damn it!" I growled. I shoved my feet into my sneakers and ran out of the room.

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DUN DUN DUN! CLIFFHANGER! I haven't done one of those in a while. -squee- I looooove cliffhangers.

Anyway...Something finally happened! It's all lead up to this you guys! The climax! Are you excited?! I am. XD I'm glad that you all have stuck with me thus far! 3's to you all.

As for the next chapter...it's pretty obvious where Fay has gone...and, if you can't figure it out, reread the first few paragraphs. XD

So concludes the potential third-to-last chapter of Through the Ages! (It's potentially almost over! -sad- )

Thanks for reading!


	13. High School 4

Ohmigosh, I'm so sorry for taking forever to do this! Two months! My life came and jumped on me all at once...and I still have so much stuff to do! -flail-

Anyway, please enjoy, and thanks for sticking with me so long!

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I ran down the empty hallways of the school, footsteps echoing off of the walls. It was still early and I was sure I was the only one up. I found my way to the headmistress's office. I needed to find out where Fay lived before I could go anywhere. It was hard to believe that I had known Fay for most of my life and I still had no idea where he lived.

I grabbed the doorknob on the office door, and, even though I wasn't surprised the door was locked, it was frustrating nonetheless. After a few tries I managed to kick the door open. I stepped inside and headed for the gray filing cabinets in the back of the room. I pulled on the drawer marked "F" only to find that to be locked as well.

"Damn it!" I spat, pulling on the drawer harder.

"You know, it works better with a key."

I turned around quickly, facing the speaker, "Obviously..."

"Is there any particular reason why you have broken into my office at 5:42 in the morning and are attempting to break into my filing cabinet?" Yuko asked, standing in the doorway.

"Yes..." I responded impatiently.

"Do I get to know this reason?"

"I need Fay's address."

"You don't have the right to access that information, Kurogane." Yuko said, setting a few items on her desk, "And, you could be severely punished for just breaking into my office. However, because I am a forgiving person, and also a little absent minded I'm going to leave the items on my desk there and leave the room for thirty seconds and hope that you are gone when I return." Yuko grinned before stepping back out of the room.

I jumped up and studied the items on the desk until I found the keys. I grabbed them, shoved the appropriate one into the slot, and pulled on the drawer; it eased open. I f thumbed through the folders until I found what I was looking for.

"Flourite, Fay D." I breathed. I pulled out the folder and opened it up. I quickly memorized the address inside. It was in a wealthier district on the other side of town. It would take at least half an hour to run there, maybe a little less. I shoved the folder back into its spot and, after closing the drawer, ran from the room. As I sprinted past Yuko she gave me an overly serious stare.

"Don't waste time." She said before stepping into her office.

I didn't have time to question what she knew. I hurried out of the school. My feet slammed against the pavement and my breath turned to mist in the early morning air.

---

By the time I reached the home that was supposedly Fay's, the sun had already risen and it was slightly warmer out. I stared up at the house; mansion seemed more appropriate though. I jumped the brick wall and walked quickly up the walkway. I threw open the door so hard that it hit the wall behind it. The inside of the house was significantly more impressive than the outside. The hallways I stood in was brightly lit with a chandelier and everything was practically sparkling it was so clean.

A tall man, he maybe had three or four inches on me, ran out in surprise. His hair was graying and he had a rather long beard. He was dressed in clothes which definitely said how much money he had. What stuck out most about him, however, were his eyes. They were a slightly duller shade of blue than Fay's and they were red around the edges, like he had stayed up all night or had too much to drink.

"Can I help you with something?" He asked, his slurred voice contrasting with his overall demeanor.

"Where is he?" I growled.

"Sir, I don't know...who you are, much less...who you are looking for." He replied, barely looking at me as he spoke.

"Liar!" I shouted. I grabbed the man's shirt collar and pressed him up against the wall, "You know _exactly_ who I'm talking about!"

He let out a cold laugh, "What does it matter if I do?" He asked, his eyes staring unfocused on the wall behind me; I was close enough to smell the alcohol on his breath.

"Tell me where he is."

"He belongs to me." He began, "He killed the person I loved most in this world, it's only fitting that I give him the same pain he's given me." The man reached into his pocket and I heard the distinctive clicking of a pocket knife. The man suddenly pulled his hand out of his pocket and he thrust the knife toward my chest. However, he was drunk and slow, and I was faster. I grabbed the knife as it came at me with my free hand. I felt it cut into my hand but ignored the pain it gave me.

"Tell me where he is, _now_." I growled.

The man laughed, but did not give an answer. I glared at him and turned and threw him up against the wall, the knife landing somewhere between us. I gave him one last stare before running up the stairs in the hallway.

"Fay?!" I called, quickly walking through the hallway, opening doors and searching rooms. It surprised me how many different doors there were in this house, and in each room there were more doors, more places to search, more places Fay was not.

"Damn it!" I cursed as I opened up one of the remaining few doors and found myself in what had to be Fay's room.

There was a large bookshelf next to a bed, various art supplies scattered across a desk, and everything was coated in a thick layer of dust suggesting that nothing in this room had been cleaned or touched in years. What caught my eye however, were the bloody handprints on the closet door. I ran to the closet and threw the door open.

"No! Leave me alone!" Fay was in the furthest corner of the closet. His legs were pulled up to his chest and his head was hidden behind them.

"Damn it, don't just sit there, moron." I muttered, annoyance and complete relief in my voice.

"Kuro-sama...?" Fay lifted his head a little and one watery blue eye looked up at me. Moments after, he had me pulled down to the floor and his arms were wrapped around my neck and he buried his face in my chest. "Kuro-chan..." Fay was crying now. I carefully reached out and rested his hands on his back and pulled him closer to me. Fay's back was sticky and wet. I scowled and lifted one hand and saw that it was stained with blood.

My eyes widened and I pulled Fay away from me. I kept my hands on his shoulders and he looked away from me.

"Relax, geez, I'm not going to do anything." I muttered. Fay nodded and wrapped his arms around himself and bent over slightly, as if he was trying to hide himself from me. I pulled his arms away and saw that his shirt was either ripped or bloodstained. I frowned and carefully took his chin in my hand and turned his face toward me. His lips were cracked and bloody and there was a large gash under his left eye, which was black and swollen.

"What did he do to you...?" I more stated than asked.

"He had a knife." Fay mumbled.

"I know." I said, just remembering the cut on my hand.

"I didn't...he just..." Fay clenched his fists in his lap. "I didn't even say anything!" He shouted. I had never heard Fay yell before and it surprised me.

"I just walked in! He asked what I was doing here, and I said that I was getting my stuff from my room...and that was it!" Fay held back a sob and continued, "He kept telling me how it was my fault that my mother was dead...that because I was born, she was dead! She died because of complications during my birth, but it wasn't my fault! It wasn't...! I don't deserve this!" Fay then seemed to fold in on himself and he began crying again, "But, I feel bad for hating him because he's my father, and there are people like you who don't even have parents, and I feel like I should be happy that he's still here...but I'm not! I hate him!" Fay sat back up and rubbed at his eyes, "Sorry...I shouldn't have said that..."

"Is it true?" I asked.

"What?" Fay looked at me, confused.

"If it's true, then don't apologize. If you don't like someone, you don't have to." I stood up and carefully took Fay's arm and pulled him to his feet. "Get your stuff."

Fay nodded and grabbed a bag from the floor of the closet and began walking around the room, fitting as much as he could into the one bag. Fay's wounds were much more prominent in the light of the room, and it made me sick that Fay's father could do such things to him.

Once the bag was full I hoisted it over my shoulder, "Come on, you need to go to the hospital." I said, glancing down at my hand. I could probably use a bandage or two as well. I closed my hand into a fist and made my way out of the room, making sure that Fay was following me. I was shocked that he was still walking. Honestly, I had no idea how many cuts or bruises he had, but it had to be a high number for his shirt to be in the condition that it was, and I didn't know how much blood he had lost.

I began to walk down the stairs and felt Fay's fingers wrapping themselves around my sleeve. His father was still in the hallway where I left him, except the knife was in his hands now. Halfway down the stairs he looked at us, causing me to pause in my step.

"I have nothing to live for." He said. He looked behind me at Fay, "I've had nothing to live for...for eighteen years..." In a quick motion he brought the knife up to his throat and quickly cut across it.

My eyes widened in horror at what had just happened, and Fay's hands tightened around my arm and a choked shout escaped his throat.

Blood gushed from the man's wound, spilling down his chest and onto the floor. If I had wanted to do anything to save him, it wouldn't have mattered, he was already dead.

I turned around and Fay looked paler than he usually did.

"Hey..." I began, not really knowing what else to say.

Fay pushed past me and ran down the stairs, pointedly avoiding his father's dead body, and running outside, "Hey!" I called after him, thinking he was running away. Fay stopped once he was down the path and he leaned over the wall and threw up. I heard him shout something before he leaned over the wall again.

I glanced toward the body for a moment before deciding to call the police. I found the phone in a parlor room on the first floor and after I called the police and explained the situation I went outside and found Fay leaning over the wall coughing. I walked over to him and rubbed his back lightly. He continued to cry until after the police showed up. We were questioned by all of the cops there to the point where the story began to get annoying. They decided that we were in the clear and needed medical attention, so they drove us to the hospital. Fay passed out on the ride there.

---

Three hours later the two of us were let out of the hospital. Fay ended up needing stitches on his face and on various parts of his stomach. Everything else was either bandaged or just bruised. The hospital had given Fay a shirt to wear on the way home too.

Eventually, we caught a taxi and we rode back to the school in silence. We walked up to our room, ignoring the stares and questions of people in the halls.

I shut the door behind me once we were in the room and glanced toward Fay, who was lying face down on my bed, his face buried in my pillow.

I watched him for a minute, not really knowing what to say. What could one say after a situation like that? 'Hey, I'm sorry your father abused you to the point of unconsciousness and killed himself in front of you.' That would surely make Fay feel better.

I sat down at the foot of the bed and I linked my hands together in my lap. After a time the silence became overwhelming and I glanced back to look at Fay, who's only movements were the shaking of his shoulders telling me he was crying again.

"I have to figure out the funeral." Fay said, turning his head so his voice wouldn't be muffled. "Nobody else is around to do it..."

"I'll help." I said.

"I don't think anyone will come...I don't have any relatives. The only people who'll come would be his colleagues, or people who think they'd get something out of it." Fay was sitting beside me now.

"What do you mean?"

"Money." Fay stated bluntly, "We weren't exactly the poorest..._family_ on the street."

"I noticed." I said, remembering the immenseness of Fay's house.

"My father didn't have a will or anything...so whatever's not used for the funeral will belong to me I guess." Fay rested his head on my shoulder before continuing. "It'll pay for college...It'll probably pay for you too if you'll let me pay it." Fay looked up at me seriously.

"What? No, you can't--"

"Yes, I can. And, I'm going to. I owe so much to you...I don't even think that'll settle the score but--"

"There is no score. I've done what I have because I've wanted to." I muttered.

"And, I'm doing this because I want to." Fay responded.

"But--"

"Too bad, end of discussion." Fay laughed quietly before kissing me gently on my cheek. "Thank you, Kuro-tan."

---

The funeral was small, as Fay predicted. There were maybe only ten people, all of whom, Fay said, worked underneath his father.

"What did your father do anyway?" I asked.

"He owned and operated most of the ski resorts and mountains in the popular areas north of here." Fay explained, pausing briefly as someone apologized to him for his loss. Fay merely nodded to them before looking back to me, "Though, I guess they all belong to me now...I'll probably sell them." Fay mused.

After a while the two of us were the only ones left standing beside the coffin. Fay turned toward the coffin and stared at it silently for a few minutes.

"You were never my father." Fay drew in a shaky breath before turning back to me, "Let's go do something fun." Fay said with a small smile.

And so, Fay and I went to the park and sat on the swings eating ice pops in our funeral attire.

"Two more weeks, Kuro-wan." Fay said, rocking the swing a bit.

"Huh?"

"We graduate in two more weeks." Fay elaborated with a sigh, "The best part of our life is over."

"We still have most of our lives ahead of us." I replied.

"True, true...but who knows where these next few years will take us. What if we grow apart? What if we go to different colleges and lose touch? What if--"

"You can't live life on 'what if's.'" I said, "If we don't want to lose touch, we won't. Besides, if I wanted to stop talking to you, I would have done it twelve years ago when I first found out how annoying you were."

Fay laughed and jumped off the swing. He landed easily on his feet and turned around to look at me, a charming smile on his face.

"Thank you so much, Kuro-rin." Fay said.

"For what?"

"For everything!"

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TT One more left guys! I may write random drabbles for this, or even continue it through college...but the planned ending is their graduation! And, that's the next chapter! -woe-

I'm sad.

Anyway, this chapter was really, really hard to write. I have a few issues with how Kurogane reacted to everything, but I think that's how he would act...so...

And, I feel like I made Fay not like Fay...but I guess that's alright, because I don't think it was too bad...

Thanks for reading! Wait for the next chapter, I'll try and have it up as soon as I can!


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